RWBY: The Chronicle's Continuation - Part 1: Resurrection
by CrazyCrashCybr
Summary: Following a major event in time and space, Ruby Rose finds herself returned to the time before she'd met Jet. Overwhelmed with feelings of inexplicable sadness upon her 'discovery' of Sunset Hill, she rediscovers the mysterious individual that captured her attention from the beginning. Only several know what truly happened... The sequel to The Jet Chronicles.
1. Chapter 1 - Resurrection

Set after the events of RWBY Season 2, BEFORE the after credits scene.

The four girls gradually made their way to their dorm, Weiss, Blake, and Yang all barely able to keep their eyes open as they trudged down the corridor, each footfall weighted with tiredness. Ruby, however, despite feeling drained, was wide awake, in stark contrast to the rest of her team.

As they walked into their dorm room, Blake and Weiss immediately crashed into their beds, neither bothering to get changed. Yang was not going to be denied her sleep either, after saying "Night, Ruby", she clambered onto her bunk, and, within seconds, Ruby could hear her sister's gentle snores start to permeate the room.

It was okay to Ruby, as she sat down in a corner of the room, looking at her sleeping teammates. She knew that they had all been through a lot, heck so had she. So why was she still wide awake? Ruby sighed, resting her legs, and slowly, very slowly, her energy came back. Perhaps she could study for a test that Professor Port was going to give them in two days' time.

No, studying and trying to fall asleep only got her boredom, not sleep. She knew after two semesters of trying it. But then what else would work? All of her team was asleep, it was late so the training arena would most likely be shut, and the other teams were probably recovering from the Grimm attack.

Silently, Ruby padded towards the door of her dorm room and slipped outside. The only other thing she could think to do was go and explore a spot just outside Beacon that Yang had told her about, one that she'd discovered in an adventure that she'd dragged Blake along for. Ruby walked down the corridor towards the exit of the building, all the while wondering curiously if there was something going on between them. Something they were planning?

That thought was quickly diminished. Yang and Blake, in a relationship?

Um, no.

Ruby reached the door leading out of the building, and pulled it wide open. A cool breeze greeted her along with the deep orange sky that signified the onset of night was beginning. Ruby looked around her, seeing no one, before activating her Semblance. Everything became a blur, and she shot through Beacon, passing by grand architecture and grand parks on her way to Beacon's exit.

* * *

The spot itself lay on a grassy hill, overlooking the entrance to Beacon and functioning as a rudimentary vantage point. To Ruby's left, the ominous start of the Emerald forest was visible after the drop of the cliff, trees that originally looked pleasant in the afternoon now giving an aura of concealed malice, despite the fact that she'd been in that very same forest more than once before.

Ruby looked up from the edge of the hill in time to see the gentle semi-circle sun that was dipping, and balked as a vision of a shimmering ball greeted her eyes, one that radiated a soothing glow upon herself and her surroundings, making them feel warm despite the cool chill that signalled the approach of the winter season. As Ruby continued to stare, the sun turned a vibrant shade of pink and blue.

Realizing with a jolt that you weren't supposed to stare at the sun, Ruby tore her eyes away and shut them briefly. The imprint of the sun was visible even within her closed eyelids, and Ruby gave it a moment to clear so that her vision was unblocked. Thankfully she hadn't been in Weiss', or any of her teammate's company, as she felt she would have been told off for that little mistake.

Ruby was about to more towards the peak, when she felt an immense, crushing feeling of sadness. It was like a stab in her otherwise happy heart, and tears rushed to her eyes. Ruby looked down and wiped her eyes, confused as to why she felt so crestfallen. She looked up to the hill once again.

There was no-one there.

She started to walk towards the hill, her legs moving on their own, as if drawn by instinct. Ruby felt many things as she neared a familiar spot, confusion, fear, just plain weird. But sadness, inexplicable sadness was billowing outwards, manifesting in the tears that were falling from her cheeks.

Ruby reached the tree, sitting down, her back propped against it.

Why did she feel so sad?

What was causing it?

A sound of a deep breath came from above Ruby, quiet yet plainly audible. Ruby looked up, and saw someone up there. It was a boy, roughly seventeen-ish judging by appearance, pale skinned just like Ruby. His eyes were closed, clearly asleep as he leant upon one of the upper branches of the tree, a peaceful smile upon his features.

He was dressed in simple black trousers and a black jacket, with a dark grey t-shirt underneath. He didn't have an overly handsome face, yet he seemed somehow charming, in stark contrast to his hair, which while parted neatly also stuck out at the back, giving them the look of highly painful black spikes.

A sudden feeling of relief surged through Ruby, a relief that was as inexplicable as it was strong. She fought the urge to bounce up and down as she studied the boy, immense feelings of déjà vu welling up like her tears.

As if sensing her presence, the boy's eyes cracked open slowly, showing Ruby a very familiar pair of emerald eyes that sparkled in the sunset's light. It was so weird. How could she feel this way and not even know anything about him?

"Hello there." he responded, the sleepiness evident in his tone. "What brings another student from Beacon here?" He gave her a gentle smile to match his voice, everything strengthening the feelings Ruby was experiencing. Now both gem-like eyes were upon her, and Ruby realized that he was waiting for her to say something. Yep. Ruby could see the curiosity. She quickly wiped away her tears.

What was it that she was supposed to do for someone she THOUGHT she knew? Oh right, names. Ruby cursed inwardly at her lack of social skill, sometimes talking to new people could be so awkward. But Yang wasn't here this time. She had to be brave. Who knew what she could discover in this person? Maybe a reason why he was so familiar?

"My name's Ruby. What's yours?" Ruby asked, trying her utmost to display the same confidence that her potential new friend seemed to have. He smiled, clearly interested.

"I'm Jet. Pleased to meet you." Jet responded, tilting his head in a small bow, before returning his gaze to Ruby's own eyes. "Why don't you stay a while? It's not often I get company up here." he said, leaping down from the tree branch gracefully. He then sat close by Ruby, but not so close that it was brought him within her personal space. Ruby knew (it took no genius) that if she wanted to further this discussion, complying with his wish was probably the best course of action.

Ruby sat down, and relaxed as he regarded her with another look, treating Ruby to a slight dose of self-consciousness. What was it with those eyes? Why was all of this so familiar? Even his name… Ruby watched as he sat up straighter, crossing his legs, his hands in his lap.

"Are you from Beacon as well? What's your team?" she asked. Jet looked at her with slight amusement, and Ruby fought hard to prevent a blush from coming across her face. That was not a good move. And since when did she consider a social situation in the same way as a game of Remnant, the Game?

"Team L-I-J-N." he replied. "It's pronounced like the word Legion. We're a second year team, just like you, Ruby of team RWBY."

"How do you know my team?" Ruby worriedly inquired. Had he been watching her before they met? Is that why he was so familiar to her? At this, Jet laughed, a quiet but pronounced laugh, which did nothing to diminish Ruby's worries.

"How could I not? Your team is rapidly becoming known amongst the other pupils here at Beacon." he chuckled, still keeping a firm gaze upon her in contrast to the relaxed smile and gentle demeanour. Ruby wasn't sure how he could keep up those eyes even though the rest of his face clearly read relaxed.

There was a weird feeling rising in Ruby's chest, something that put the other weirdness things she'd already experienced to shame. She felt like… no, that couldn't be right, could it?

Shaking it off, she asked "What's your leader like?"

"Leader?" came his response. "I'm the leader of LIJN. We're probably the only team that has their leader's letter elsewhere from the first letter. Though I probably don't look it." he joked. "I don't know, can you think of something where J and I go together and L and N go together, with J in the front?"

Ruby smiled, her thoughts still wondering, his question going over her head. What was it with this guy? It honestly felt like there was something more to him, almost like there was something of much greater power behind him, like someone who appeared weak but in reality was terrifyingly strong. Kinda like Penny. Absent-mindedly looking Jet over, she asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Me?" Jet asked. "This is a favourite spot of mine, particularly for an afternoon nap. I come here a lot. What about you?"

He had a curious way of speaking, a cross between formal and casual, but Ruby didn't mind. He seemed friendly enough, if the déjà vu was any indication, so she decided on the truth.

"My sister told me about this spot. It's nice." Ruby said. Jet did not reply this time, and it took several seconds for Ruby to realise that he wasn't going to after his nod of clear acknowledgement. It was a silence that Ruby knew all too well, things would be dangerously close to being…

Wanting to make things a little less awkward, as Jet continued to watch her, she pulled out Crescent Rose and unfolded it. "What do you think of my weapon, Crescent Rose?" she asked, embedding the blade into the grass. Jet's eyes widened, but not from fear, it seemed. He reached out, a little tentative.

"Could I feel it?" he asked. Ruby let go of her precious pseudo-partner, and he did indeed feel it, all the way from grip to barrel to blade. His touch seemed almost like a caress, his surprisingly slender fingers dancing across the steel like a skater on an ice rink, tender like a lover's touch.

"You've done a really good job making Crescent Rose." he said, his voice tinged with admiration. Ruby once again met his emerald eyes. Now she was surprised. How had he known?

"How did you know I made it?" she asked. He chuckled again.

"Ruby, I can see the custom design and the unusual choice of high-calibre sniper rifle plus scythe." he said, as if it were obvious, which to Ruby, it was. Now that Ruby thought about it, all students of Beacon made their own weapons. Ruby was starting to take a liking to him, almost too quickly, but she let it slide. Perhaps this stranger, Jet, was a friend she hadn't met until now. She wondered about his own weapon. Was it as intricate as her own?

"What about your weapon?" she asked. Jet let go of Crescent Rose, and Ruby folded it away as he responded.

"I don't have a single weapon, like yourself. The one I'm currently using is this." he said, pulling from within his jacket a silver pole, similar in size to a classroom ruler. Jet stood up, and Ruby watched him, entranced, as the pole lengthened until it was the same height as Ruby herself.

Then, purplish flames burst into life from the tip facing the sky, as twelve spikes protruded from this flaming end, each pointed outwards, curving over the flames. Jet twirled the staff, then embedded the non-flaming end into the ground. "Meet Shadow Meteor." he said, proudly, as Ruby rose to fully see the staff. "One part silver staff, two parts flamethrower, eleven parts death."

Ruby could only stare in wonder. This was all familiar too! That weapon was… had she definitely seen it before?

"That's incredible! Did you make that?" she asked.

"This one I did. Most of my combat roles involve dust or lasers to some degree, in support." Jet said. Ruby grinned, for she had finally found some-one with similar interests to her own, even if he seemed to give her a dose of weird feelings. Finally, someone who appreciated the effort that went into a weapon's design, and who seemed just as interested in other weapons besides his own.

Maybe she finally had someone who liked the same things that she did.

Jet checked his scroll as Shadow Meteor collapsed into its original form, spikes retracting and flames vanishing. Ruby looked around, and noticed how dark it had become, now that the sunset had ended. The distraction of meeting a new person was starting to wear off, and Ruby felt unusually… heavy.

"It's getting late, and by the looks of things we're looking at headaches in the morning." Jet said, showing Ruby his scroll. It was 10:30, way past when Ruby normally fell asleep. Jet paused, and looked at his scroll again. "Wait, that can't be right. Is this thing even set right?"

Ruby was definitely feeling the exhaustion regardless of what time it actually was, and was starting to feel her eyes droop. She could barely keep her eyes open, and sleep was not to be denied her, even if they were past curfew and the gates to Beacon were closed.

"J…Jet." she mumbled, trying her utmost to somehow show this to him, just as the boy in question noticed her starting to fall over. Now it was getting scary. How was she suddenly feeling this tired after being wide awake before?

"Oh crud." he cursed, as Ruby blacked out, the tiredness finally claiming her consciousness.


	2. Chapter 2 - Realignment

"WAKE UP!" came a shrill voice in Ruby's ear. Ruby jumped as if she had been hit by a lightning bolt and promptly fell off her bed, landing painfully on her back at the feet of her team mate, Weiss Schnee. Looking up, her vision blurry, she saw furious blue eyes piercing her sleepy brain as she struggled to find out what happened. She relaxed when she realized she was in her dorm room, though that feeling didn't last long, as she didn't remember how she had gotten there.

Memories came rushing back, about everything that had happened. Jet, his weapon, the overwhelming feeling of tiredness and familiarity. Had he brought her up here? How had he accessed Beacon even past curfew?

Ruby looked up at Weiss, disorientated. Weiss, having no such distracting thoughts, pulled her teammate up to her feet, Ruby letting out a surprised little 'eep' as she was pulled sharply to her feet.

"It's a good thing you weren't attending classes today." Weiss said, shaking Ruby a little to help pull her back into reality. Ruby shook off the tiredness, then looked at Weiss.

"It's Thursday though." she said, trying her best to ignore the fact that her whole team was awake before she was.

"Dolt, don't you remember? Ozpin let us off for the day to recuperate." Weiss replied, turning away as Ruby literally dashed through the shower after flying out of bed, then walked down to the cafeteria with Weiss, intending to catch up with Blake and Yang.

* * *

They found the other half of RWBY sat in their usual spot, although team JNPR was nowhere to be found. They were not who Ruby were looking for, however.

Her eyes scanned around the tables until they found the one she was looking for.

At one of the corners of the dining area, Jet sat, Ruby once again feeling a lift of her heart at the sight of him that she couldn't justify, seemingly having a staring contest with a silver-haired girl opposite him. He wasn't blinking. As Ruby stared, he broke and gave what seemed to be a quiet laugh. Both his and the girl's voices were inaudible amongst the clamour of the cafeteria.

"Ruby?" Weiss called. Ruby tore her eyes off the pair towards her team. "Why are you staring at those two?"

"Oh, one of them's a friend I met last night." Ruby replied.

"The same one that put you in bed last night?" Blake asked, as she sat down. She then ducked as Yang choked out the drink she had been just about to swallow, while Weiss gave her and Ruby a wide-eyed stare.

"Wait, p-p-put me to bed?" Ruby shakily responded, as Yang erupted into a coughing fit, still choking on the drink, slamming a fist on the table that caused the whole thing to wobble dangerously. What had Jet been doing when she fell asleep? It had been weird that she'd just fallen asleep like that, but still.

"I was woken up last night by the door opening. He used your scroll." Blake explained. "Black hair, green eyes, dark jacket, right?" At Ruby's nod, she continued. "He took the duvet off your bed, then put you into the bed, then threw the duvet back on. He tucked you in."

Jet had tucked her in? Part of Ruby was creeped out, another was embarrassed, yet another was thankful. And another was charmed. It was a sweet gesture for Jet to take that much care of her despite her being none the wiser. Distracted as Ruby understandably was, she nearly missed the rest of Blake's story.

"He then took one last look, and left." Blake finished. "Looks like you have an admirer."

Ruby blushed at that. Jet didn't seem like that kind of guy when she'd talked to him. He'd been calm and didn't speak very loudly at all. There was the weird way that he spoke, reminding her of Ozpin, but other than that, nothing out of the ordinary about him.

Aside from all the… feelings.

Yang sat up, having already finished a breakfast which she would call 'normal', if she thought 'normal' meant a large helping of pancakes and breakfast cereal, and left the table.

"I'm going to meet and greet." Yang said jovially, headed in Jet's direction, seemingly unaffected by the choking fit she'd had earlier.

* * *

"I'm surprised that it worked." Jet replied to Izzet's comment, remembering the practise combat he'd done back in Vale not too long ago. He raised a mug of tea and clinked with his silver-haired teammate. She gave him a smile and a wink with her icy blue left eye even as her blood red one continued to stare. If she were to stand, she'd be roughly half a head taller than him. She was wearing a dark jacket, much like himself. His whole team wore them, after all. Truly a legion at heart.

"Hi!" A girl's voice, loud and clear, interrupted his thoughts. He glanced up and saw a pretty girl, much taller than him, with a long mane of blonde hair and eyes he would have mistaken for amethysts had he not known better. She greeted him with a cheery smile, and Jet replied with one of his own. Izzet, following his lead, did the same, albeit hers was a little smaller.

"Hello. You must be Ruby Rose's sister." Jet asked, already noticing the similarities between her and the caped girl he'd met last night. "Yang, right?" He held out his hand, noting the momentary surprise in her eyes, before Yang took his hand in a firm grip.

"Yup. You're Jet, right?" Yang asked, taking a seat to his left on the square table. "I heard what you did for Ruby last night, thanks for that by the way." Out of the corner of his eye, Jet noticed Izzet flash him a curious look. Resolving to tell her later, Jet turned his attention back to Yang.

"Don't mention it, it was the least I could do at the time." Jet replied politely. Yang then turned to look at Izzet, who so far hadn't said anything since her arrival.

"What's your name?" Yang asked. Izzet turned her gaze on Jet and winked using her red eye. It was a code, telling him that it was fine with her if her red eye was closed by the wink.

"Izzet, and she's a mute." Jet replied. Izzet held out a hand in reply, and Yang shook it. She then put a hand to her chin, her finger brushing her lips as she tilted her head. Jet, recognising it as curiosity regarding her team, spoke for her. "She's wondering which team you're on."

"Oh, I'm in RWBY. One of the best." Yang said with a wink. At this, Izzet flashed Jet a smile, and he knew what she wanted him to say.

"LIJN." Jet responded. He didn't challenge it, and he knew why. Izzet gave him another glance out of the corner of his eye, and he winked, his own non-verbal way of saying 'Don't worry, I'm on it.' She nodded. "We were just talking about the last training we did in Vale this morning."

"Training in Vale?" Yang asked, surprise prominent in her features. "I thought we weren't allowed."

"That didn't stop us." Jet replied. "Care to hear? You might be surprised as to what we got up to."

"Go ahead." Yang said, interlocking her fingers and leaning on the table as Jet started to recount the two on two sparring match.

* * *

Jet perched himself on a spire of a building in downtown Vale, maintaining a perfect balance on the single point with a single boot. His vigilance was normally eternal, as he scanned the roads, streets, and even dark alleys, in the light of the early morning sun. Even as he did so, his mind began to wander. ' _Did Ruby sleep alright?_ ' he asked himself.

A sneeze broke his concentration.

Reacting instantaneously, Jet spun on the spot and kicked out at Izzet, who had been about to swipe at him with two, silver blades, but instead, he connected with the attack, and she fell incredibly fast down into the streets, where her blur faded.

Grinning, he plummeted down after her, drawing Shadow Meteor, intent on finishing her in one hit. He extended it and ignited it, the dark flames licking his right hand. Before he could complete this dive, however, a body slammed into him with incredible heat and power.

Knocked out of his dive, Jet slammed into the nearest building, taking the body with him, going straight through the brick wall, with his aura protecting him. He quickly rose and faced his attacker, revealed to be a woman in another dark jacket, this one with gold trims around the collar and ends of her sleeves, who leapt to her feet. Her flaming red hair glittered with sparks as she watched him with electric blue eyes. Nouvelle's gaze fell upon Shadow Meteor as Jet readied himself.

"Do you really expect to defeat me with zat thing?" she asked in a scornful tone with a strong French accent. Behind her, Izzet jumped through the hole in the roof, blades ready, as she drew a golden pole-like object from her jacket, extending it and revealing it to be Blazing Meteor, her own weapon. Like Shadow Meteor, it was a staff topped with twelve spikes, curved around a non-existant orb. However, the flames were the regular red and orange conflagration, and the staff golden.

Izzet pointed her twin swords at Nouvelle, who started to become blurred with the same silver aura that Jet had seen on his partner. He had to act fast, and fortunately, they were right where he wanted them. As Nouvelle sprang at him, he whistled.

Izzet immediately jumped in both figurative and literal shock, and attempted to turn to face her attacker, but she was rapidly numbed by the volts coursing through her slender frame and fell to the floor, defeated. This revealed a second girl, one whose pencil straight locks of blond hair were currently all glowing with electric power. She retracted her dual whips, and Izzet fell to the ground, revealing her attacker to be Lilac, her curvy figure and dark green eyes accentuated by her dark top and matching skirt.

In that instant, the blurring effect vanished, and Nouvelle had charged forward. However, she had intended to attack Jet while she was boosted by Izzet. Losing her momentum, she was an open target, and Jet did not hesitate, cracking her around the head with Shadow Meteor, her aura taking the majority of the hit. As she fell, dazed, Jet simply said "I do." before turning to face Lilac.

She beamed at him, and yelled out "Victory!" as she ran over to hug Jet. Jet allowed her to collide with him, and the two shared in their victory hug, the gesture simply an act of friendship, though Lilac had to crouch a little.

Izzet picked herself up, and looked towards the fallen Nouvelle, along with the hole in the wall. She turned to address Jet, but he merely winked, mismatched eyes meeting emerald.

"You know what to do, Izzet." he said, reaching over to pat the short girl on the shoulder. Izzet nodded, closed her eyes, and concentrated on the broken wall. "Serves you right for making it a one hit kill match."

* * *

"Woah." Ruby said from behind Yang as Jet finished, Izzet nodding to give credibility to his tale.

"Morning Ruby." he greeted, then peered around Ruby to see Weiss and Blake, both observing him. "So this is the full team RWBY." he muttered to himself, at a volume only Ruby heard. He extended a hand to Weiss. "Name's Jet, and this is my partner, Izzet." As he had his hand shaken in turn from Weiss and Blake, he received a tap on the shoulder from Izzet.

The silver haired girl had tilted her head, and had closed her blue eye. Jet nodded, then turned back. "I'll chat to you four later, but for now, we'll be heading off. Catch you later."

He was going? Ruby retreated, to give him space to move, but instead he reached out and clasped Izzet's hand in his own.

Then, without warning, the two of them vanished from their chairs.

For a moment, the entirety of team RWBY was silent. Ruby was wracking her brains trying to work out what on earth had happened. Jet and his teammate had literally vanished. She whirled around quickly, trying to work out where the heck they had gone.

Only Yang broke the silence.

"Well, that's a thing they can do."

* * *

The rest of team RWBY's week went almost like a normal week, well, about as normal as one would go in Beacon. Ruby went to class, got homework, did homework, studied, and hit things in combat class. Lots of things. The only real change was that on the evenings, she would slip out to see Jet, who was always in his usual spot on Sunset Hill.

They talked about many things, the tournament being one of them. Ruby learned on their fourth consecutive meeting that Team LIJN was also participating, despite also being a second year team. For some reason, and for the first time ever that she'd admit it to herself, it filled her with a small amount of trepidation to go up against him.

He could use different weapons, and she also knew nothing about him, and while that wouldn't have bothered her, against an opponent like Jet, whose mysteries only seemed to increase the more were unveiled, small droplets of real fear dripped down her back at the thought of facing him.

The strange, inexplicable feeling in her heart grew stronger with each visit, and as Ruby progressed through the week, she found it increasingly harder to focus on her studies, her mind drawn to him during boring lectures like a stray cat to a man that fed it scraps from his own meal.

Finally, during the last school day of her week, Ruby could handle it no more. She couldn't concentrate, even during duelling practise. Every time she tried to let her thoughts run free, Jet came up. She wanted to know more about him, spend more time with him even though he was a stranger, and she didn't know why. If she didn't know better, she would have accused him of demon sorcery or something stupid like that. It was so… sudden. He'd taken over her thoughts.

Just that one guy. That one, almost too familiar guy.


	3. Chapter 3 - Reimagination

Ruby's first port of call was Yang, and she found her laying on her bed, enjoying a free period. Not feeling any reservations about her sister's rest, as Yang had once reassured her that if ever she needed anything she had permission to rouse her, Ruby gently shook her awake, and was given a grunt and a snuffle before lilac eyes met hers.

"Yeah Sis? What's up?" Yang asked, shuddering as a yawn worthy of a bear escaped her.

"I'm feeling different." Ruby admitted, deciding on the truth. Yang sat up from her bunk and leaped down, before sitting down on the floor with Ruby, armed with a concerned expression on her face. Another rush of familiarity.

"What's wrong?" she asked her little sister. Ruby fought with telling her, knowing this would only mean Yang teasing her about it, before finally breaking her barriers. Yang knew more about emotions than anyone else she'd known, heck it was part of her semblance!

"It's Jet. It's like, whenever I'm around him, my heart beats faster. I like talking to him. But each time, especially when I'm in class I can't concentrate on anything apart from thinking about him. Is that… normal?" she finally confessed.

Yang looked at Ruby, her face flushed with colour, and her expression timid.

"Go on." Yang encouraged. "What do you think about?"

"Just… him." Ruby replied, getting more and more flustered. "Like… I want to see him more and find out more about him and stuff sooo, yeah." she ended off with a very awkward silence.

Yang did the one thing that Ruby didn't expect. She broke out into a grin.

"Ruby, you're crushing." she replied. Ruby was instantly taken aback.

"I… I…" she said, trying to marshal her thoughts and failing, her cheeks turning a similar colour to her namesake. No. It wasn't a crush.

Was it?

Ruby looked back at all the times she had been with Jet. She recalled all the times her heart had fluttered when she'd met those eyes, the strength in his gaze, even a couple of dreams she had had afterwards, depicting Jet and her in a more… immoral sense. He certainly seemed to enjoy his time with her. It also felt like she'd already known him for more than the few days when she'd first met him. Maybe it was.

"So, Jet's your Romeo?" Yang teased, quickly bringing Ruby back to reality. She blushed even harder, waving her hands in a desperate attempt to get her sister to lower her voice.

"Yang, this is serious. And who is Romeo anyway?" Ruby whispered.

"I'll explain later." came Yang's reply. Ruby sighed, she had had a feeling Yang would tease her.

"Just… how can we find out if he feels the same way with me?" Ruby asked, finally starting to cool down from the embarrassment.

"Easy." Yang said, cheerily, looking at the clock, which showed a time important to Yang as she started to get her books together. Maybe she had another class. "You and me, we go out together and find him." Yang explained. "You lay low, and listen in on our talk. We'll find out what's on his mind, little sis."

"It's a date." Ruby said, smiling, deciding to play along, for lack of a better plan, idea or person too go to for advice on guys. If anyone could get information out of anyone, it was her sister.

Especially when she'd done it before.

Wait. Had she?

Ah, whatever.

Ruby was confident.

* * *

Ruby was nervous.

Even after trying to calm herself down, she was still nervous.

She was going to hear what her crush thought about her. She'd accepted it as she daydreamed through Oobleck's class, about her and Jet. Yang probably wouldn't have stopped teasing her if it weren't for the fact that they were in class, and though Weiss did have to poke her every now and again to bring her back into reality, she knew how she felt now.

It was weird. How had she fallen for someone she'd only met a week ago? Ruby had wondered briefly, and then put it out of her mind. She had had more important things to do. Like find out if he had similar feelings for her and had fallen for the same demon sorcery that she had-

No. Stop it, brain.

After the last class of the week had ended, Yang had told Weiss and Blake that she and Ruby were going to do some shopping. Both seemed suspicious at first: Ruby had never been a shopping type of girl, and Ruby herself agreed with them there, but they accepted it, and the two sisters left, in search of Jet.

It took them roughly half an hour to find Jet, and where they did, it was in an internal part of Beacon.

Rows and rows of benches sat in front of a large patch of grass, complete with a pond in the centre. Ruby zipped from hiding place to hiding place as Yang advanced, like a scout under a sniper's cover, which, now that Ruby thought about it, was true since she did wield a sniper-scythe.

Finally, they spotted Jet, sitting on a park bench further away from the teaching buildings. Ruby perched herself within the leaves of a tree as Yang called out to Jet.

"Hey! Jet!" Yang called, waving. Jet turned his head, a familiar warm smile on his normally cool face.

"Hey Yang." He called out in reply. Yang sat on the bench next to him, and he turned to face her. "What did you need?" he asked. It seemed that, like Ruby's crush, Yang had become friendly with him in a similar fashion. It was almost scary to Ruby. Almost. Perhaps Jet was one of those guys that were easy to get along with, or he was very, veeerry sneaky.

Just before she could elaborate on that mental picture, Ruby heard a branch snap behind her, and turned to see another girl, crouched behind her. Her silver hair and mismatched eyes, along with the fact that she was a similar sort of height to Ruby could only mean one thing: this was Izzet, the girl that had been sitting with Jet on the first day he'd met her team. Dressed in her Beacon uniform, she was crouched right behind Ruby.

She jumped in understandable fright, and wobbled dangerously on her branch. Izzet reached out and caught her, pulling her back up, Ruby noting how soft her touch was. She was wearing jeans, with a grey jacket very similar to Jet's in style. She put her fingers to her lips, making a "shh" noise, then pointed to Jet and Yang, who were engrossed in conversation. Ruby looked questioningly at her, and Izzet sighed.

 _'_ _Don't react. I'm speaking to you telepathically.'_ a soft voice in Ruby's head suddenly spoke out. _'Think what you want to say to me.'_ Izzet pointed to her temple as she said this.

 _'_ _What are you doing here?'_ Ruby thought, watching Izzet as she tensed upon her branch, like a cat about to spring upon a mouse.

 _'_ _The same reason you're here.'_ came the delicate voice.

 _'_ _How are you doing this?'_ Ruby asked, feeling a little impressed at this ability.

 _'_ _I'm mute you see, so I don't normally communicate.'_ Izzet's voice reverberated in her head. _'But when I need to, I use telepathy. I can tell something's up with Jet.'_ she continued. _'I just want to prove my theory.'_

 _'_ _Something up with Jet?'_ Ruby thought, originally to herself, but Izzet seemed to hear this.

 _'_ _Yes.'_ Ruby turned to look at Jet and Yang. The two seemed to be amused. Yang was cracking up laughing, and Jet was attempting to control his own laughter, several fingers covering his mouth. Ruby did not seem to have missed much, and she turned to face Izzet. The girl continued to watch the pair, a concerned expression on her face, similar to how Weiss looked sometimes when she was worried.

 _'_ _He's been acting differently. I swear, it's like he has spells of déjà vu every five seconds. His thoughts have become ever more erratic, and I just wondered if your sister might just gleam the information for us.'_ Izzet thought to her. Ruby was about to attempt to decipher that statement when Jet suddenly looked up, and his eyes focussed on the spot they were in!

Izzet quickly grabbed Ruby's hand, and the whole world suddenly turned grey. She kept a hold of Ruby's hand as she marvelled at what had just happened. Every single thing in the world had turned its own shade of grey. As if every single colour aside from grey had drained from the world, from herself.

 _'_ _Don't break contact with me. Follow.'_ Izzet instructed, using her telepathy.

 _'_ _What happened?'_ Ruby immediately thought back. The world was completely silent. Everything was frozen. Literally. As if everything had suddenly lost all life.

" _Follow._ " came Izzet's reply.

Izzet led Ruby as they both jumped from the tree, and Izzet led her to another tree, closer to Yang and Jet, who were frozen just the same as their surroundings. Izzet took them both upwards, and they settled on a branch of the new, taller tree. Izzet was still grasping Ruby's hand, and as she attempted to pull away, Izzet tightened her grip.

 _'_ _Stop.'_ Izzet's voice reverberated through her mind, worried. _'This is my semblance. I can manipulate time. I've stopped time right now, so that we could move and continue to listen. I will now resume it.'_

Wait. She could control TIME?! As in seconds and minutes? THAT TIME?!. She had effectively stopped the entire world just so that she and Ruby could hide from Jet's gaze.

That. Is. Awesome!

As she continued to think and watch Izzet with reverence, the colour began to flow back into the world. Once it had fully been restored, everything resumed, as if someone had hit a 'play' button on a paused movie. Jet was still looking at where Izzet and Ruby had been, and Yang had turned to look too. From this tree, Ruby could hear their voices a lot clearer, and Izzet remained silent, focussing on their conversation.

"What is it, Jet?" Yang asked.

"Oh, nothing." Jet, after scanning the tree they were just in, turned back to her. "Thought I saw something in the tree." Ruby relaxed, and Izzet gave a relieved sigh.

"Soooo, Jet." Yang said causally. "Is there anyone you like? Any girls, I mean." Jet looked surprised at the direct question, but maintained his composure. "There must be someone out there, I know a couple that would kill for someone like you."

"I'll take that as a compliment. Hm, let's see." he said, teasingly, his slender finger on his chin. "I have one, though I'm not sure if she feels the same for me." Yang's eyes widened, as he continued. "I can't tell you her name, but I could always describe her."

"Go ahead." Yang said, leaning in, and from the tree, Ruby and Izzet did the same.

"She's pretty, quite small, with a very familiar scent." Ruby's heat was beating rather fast. So far so good.

"What of? And who is it familiar to?" Yang asked.

"That would be telling, to the first." came Jet's expectedly cryptic response. "And it's my favourite scent, to the second. She wields a unique weapon, and her semblance isn't dust related."

Ruby was distracted by Izzet turning to look at her, but she quickly shrugged and turned back to watch. Everyone had a unique weapon, and there were many non-dust related semblances.

"And," Jet said, in a decisive voice, "she's at Beacon. If I wasn't trying to keep her a secret, then I could… oh, point her out right now."

Ruby's heart missed a beat. Izzet jumped in shock. Had he spotted them? Izzet had reacted so quickly, at speeds comparable to her, and this was Ruby Rose she was thinking of. Did he see her? Ruby hoped to god that he hadn't. The situation would only be that much more embarrassing.

"Don't do that!" Yang said quickly, clearly covering Ruby, or at least it seemed that way to her, looking around at the other people in the park. "I wanna guess it first."

"Could be anyone." Jet replied, teasingly.

Ruby turned to Izzet and tapped her. She turned to face her.

"I've heard all I need to hear." Ruby whispered. "Can you stop time and help me leave?"

Izzet smiled kindly, took Ruby's hand, and the lush green of the tree and the park once again became a monotone greyscale.

Once they were out of the park, Izzet and Ruby parted ways with Izzet giving a friendly wave. Smiling, Ruby returned it, before sitting on a bench in the street and waiting for Yang. All she had to do was hear Yang's opinion, and the matter would be decided. Although, Ruby thought she already knew what she was going to say.

Yes!

* * *

As Jet waved goodbye to Yang, his eyes travelled across the tree he had seen Ruby and Izzet in. He chuckled to himself in amusement. Did Izzet really think that she had evaded his gaze? It had been brief, but he had spotted Ruby Rose in the treetops, and at the speed she had vanished, one of two things had happened. Either Ruby had dashed off, or Izzet had moved herself and Ruby, stopping time.

The lack of a blur coming out of the tree had made it obvious. Really, if anything, he had expected Ruby to want to know his feelings about her, but Izzet? They had been close friends, but Jet had decided to stop lying to himself when Yang had quizzed him about Ruby. He had fallen for the diminutive girl in a cape.

Still, if he had to interpret all the morsels of information in his web, it wasn't hard to piece together that Yang had come and asked him about his feelings so that Ruby could hear his feelings. Perhaps she was in love with him, or maybe it was her way of following up on what had transpired when they'd first met.

There was also the matter of feeling like… somehow… she belonged with him? Was that an accurate way of putting it?

However, he had also told the truth when he had told Yang that he wasn't sure if Ruby loved him back. She was young, after all. He'd pried the information out of Yang about her move of two years. Maybe she was still too young.

Jet shook those thoughts out, as he walked towards a nearby bathroom. He had other pressing matters.

* * *

Ruby was overjoyed as she stepped into her dorm room with Yang, finding Weiss and Blake already asleep. Jet did have similar feelings to her! To think that her first crush had also fallen in love with her so quickly, in the same manner that she had. Maybe it was fate.

Yang yawned, and Ruby couldn't stifle her own tiredness, heart racing as it was. Yang mumbled "Night sis" before climbing into her own bunk, still fully clothed. Grinning inwardly at her sister's lack of decency in bedtime clothes, Ruby changed into her pyjamas, before hopping up into her own bunk, the ropes straining with the sudden force.

 _'_ _An early night for an early wake-up for the second day of the weekend'_ , she thought, but her mind kept her from getting to sleep for a good half an hour, still thinking about how she was going to eventually tell Jet about her feelings for him.

Time was literally flying by.


	4. Chapter 4 - Redefeated

When Ruby next awoke, she checked her scroll. It was 6AM in the morning, but as she curled up intending to go back to sleep, she gazed sleepily out through the window. It was at the point that she saw daylight.

Ah, stuff it. May as well get up.

As Ruby stretched and yawned, she wondered if Jet was awake at this time. Probably not, right?

Ruby gently got out of bed and hopped down, treading carefully, tiptoeing away from Weiss' bed, slowly padding towards her wardrobe. It opened with a creak, loud in the silence of the dorm room. Ruby quickly reached inside and grabbed her outfit, deciding as she crept towards the bathroom to forgo a shower and let her team sleep.

As she got dressed, Ruby fought to keep the excitement everyone knew her for down. Jet, the person she'd been crushing on, was in love with her too! How was this possible? Nobody could love Ruby Rose, the socially inept king of the… what was it that Weiss called her every now and again?

Oh right. King of the dolts.

Still, if Jet was an indicator, then maybe what Yang said was true. There was someone out there for her. And he happened to be a hunter in training, just like her. Talking of strength, maybe she could see if he did any early morning training in the arena?

* * *

As Ruby stepped through the arena gates, she saw him. And she was entranced.

He was fighting a training robot, one of the latest models by the look of it, which had a light on its head that was shining red, meaning it was at the height of its capabilities.

And yet, even as the thing completed a series of very advanced judo techniques, intending to offset Jet, he kept his cool, deflecting each blow with one of two purely black swords, one, two, three, before slashing with one sword downwards.

The 'bot blocked it with the singular blade they all wielded, yet this left it open to the other sword in that instant, and Jet knew it. The other blade, trailing black rose petals, decapitated it, sending the head flying straight up into the air, while the body crumpled with a series of clangs and tinkles.

Woah. He had just chopped its head off. Oookay then, those swords were definitely sharp.

"Hey, Jet!" she called out tentatively.

He looked up, and grinned at her presence, though this was rewarded by the severed head of the chrome robot coming back down and landing on his own head with a resounding clonk. His eyes, having a harsh focus, instantly dilated in embarrassment.

"Apologies. Forgot to look up." Jet replied, massaging his head with a small hiss. Ruby giggled unintentionally even though she knew Jet was trying to play it up. "So what brings you out here?" Jet asked, still blushing a little from the situation he'd just underwent. Ruby knew the real reason she'd wanted to find Jet, but decided it wasn't the time.

"I just came out to train." Ruby said. This WAS true, at least, she did do an early morning session during the weekends.

"In that case, why not spar with me?" Jet suggested. "The training bots here aren't really doing it for me." At his suggestion, Ruby noticed that Jet suddenly had his arm behind his back, and his swords were gone.

Ruby was curious as to how her crush fought, but something… somehow, was telling her not to bother. It was as if there was a voice in her head warning her not to pursue this fight.

"Sure." She said, a smile crossing her face, ignoring the internal warning. Jet smiled, and adopted his own stance, unnervingly mirroring her. Before Ruby had a chance to even move, however, a black mist started to envelop Jet, covering him utterly in a dark cloud her eyesight could not penetrate.

This time, the déjà vu came with a sense of dread. And Ruby felt it like an icy downpour down her back.

As suddenly as it had appeared, it began to disperse, revealing Jet, still in his combat stance, but he was not wielding Shadow Meteor, nor the blades that had decapitated the training bot. Ruby's eyes widened as she gazed upon the familiar scythe clasped in his hands. _'He was wielding Crescent Rose! But how?'_ Ruby thought to herself.

It was a duplicate of Crescent Rose, but all the red details had become black, and the metal had a purplish tinge to it. The metal blade had also been replaced with a purple, transparent, laser-like blade, glowing darkly. Spinning the scythe and causing black rose petals to scatter as he did so, Jet anchored the shimmering blade into the ground.

"Ruby, meet Midnight Rose." Jet proclaimed, grinning devilishly.

Without waiting for her to react, Jet charged at a speed that defied belief.

* * *

Blake opened her eyes. It was another day. She pushed herself up, looking at the clock on the wall of the dorm. It read 7:30. Knowing that Ruby was probably doing her secret training, she glanced over at Weiss sleeping peacefully, with Yang's soft snores giving Blake all the information she needed to know there.

As she got dressed, Blake's mind drifted over to all the new people she had met while being in team RWBY. Many of them she probably would have never met if she hadn't been here. Sighing, Blake adjusted her bow that often sat atop her head, and decided to go out and find Ruby. It hadn't been the first time she'd watched Ruby train, and she didn't want Yang to catch her with the new series she was reading, not after what had happened the last time.

Reaching the training grounds, Blake wasn't surprised to see Ruby. She was surprised to see her backed up against a wall, however, with her shadowy opponent countering any attempt to escape. Blake frowned, before she recognised Jet as one of the two blurs, and even more when she saw his weapon. It looked like Crescent Rose, but had more of an 'evil' feel to it. Blake leaned against a wall, and decided to watch.

* * *

Ruby was tiring, and Jet knew it.

He was a terrifying opponent, matching her in speed and agility but he fought with a skill that reminded her of her uncle. It was literally the first time she'd seen him fight with her OWN weapon and he was kicking her butt. His brutal attacks quickly drained her energy when they impacted her blocking scythe. _'I really should have loaded up on cookies before facing him.'_ Ruby thought.

Desperately, Ruby continued to try to parry every single swipe of Midnight Rose with Crescent Rose, but Jet was too crafty, getting in the odd hit here and there, matching a use of her semblance with his own. Little nicks from Midnight Rose were starting to get sore, but Ruby knew that she had to get away from this lock, or Jet would easily overpower her. His systematic slashes and twirls almost made him seem robotic in his movements, yet Ruby knew he was not mechanical and definitely not predictable.

Before she could do anything that would stop this series of attacks, however, Jet turned his wrist at an angle seemingly impossible, one-handedly sweeping Midnight Rose past Crescent Rose and penetrating her defences, slashing her across the chest! Ruby's aura had saved her, but Jet had just dealt a major blow to her aura levels.

It surprised her immensely, a move that was not one she'd 'experienced' before!

The moment Ruby's shocked cry sounded out, Jet capitalised on her distraction, swinging Midnight Rose by gripping the haft very close to the blade. The blunt end of the haft smashed into Ruby, knocking her backwards, and she felt Crescent Rose being wrenched away from her by a strength comparable to Yang's, leaving Ruby on the ground, defenceless. As soon as she hit the metallic floor, Jet immediately folded up Midnight Rose, and crouched next to her.

The pain was unbelievable. Ruby curled up into a ball around the glowing cut in the flesh of her stomach, one that felt almost numb if not for the needles of cold, harsh pain stabbing into the skin. The area around it felt blisteringly cold, as if the affected area had been transmuted into ice.

Ruby shut her eyes as a pair of hands encircled her.

* * *

At Sunset Hill, Jet put Ruby down and checked her wounds. Ruby was still feeling searing pain from Midnight Rose's touch, freezing cold, coupled with searing pain. Did she mention the searing pain? She looked at Jet, whose face was pained with worry.

"I-i-it h-h-h-urts" Ruby stuttered, the best she could manage while still groaning in pain and shivering from the unnatural chill. Jet said nothing, but held his palm up to the sky, which suddenly shone a scattering of red and blue lights. Ruby heard rapid footsteps near her head as Jet lowered his hand.

Jet moved away from Ruby, and Ruby looked down at her body as it felt strangely warm, despite the shimmering purple slash into her stomach. There was an orange aura surrounding her, and without warning, she felt the agony of each of her injuries as fresh as if Jet had dealt them again, in reverse order, starting with the ending hit.

She screamed in pain, agony re-dealt hurt just as much as the first time, and threw her head back. Then, it suddenly stopped as swiftly as it had started.

Ruby looked again, only to find they had all been… healed?

No, more than that, it had felt as if she hadn't even suffered the wounds in the first place. What was going on?

She felt Jet picking her off the ground, and he turned to face the stranger, which was Izzet, a look of worry on her face.

"Thank you Izzet." Jet said. "That makes another deed in the long list of deeds that I am eternally grateful for." Izzet smiled, before making an enquiring face. Jet smiled, and nodded. Izzet blushed, something Ruby did not think she was capable of doing, before vanishing. Ruby smiled weakly. _'She must disappear when she stops time.'_ she thought, before turning to the matter at hand, the fact that she was in Jet's arms.

"Um, I can walk you know." she said, somewhat sarcastically to Jet. A small laugh escaped Jet as he put her down. She turned, with hands on hips, even though Jet regarded her with his neutral smile.

"How did you do that?" Ruby asked. He had beaten her easily! Her speed did nothing to trick him, and Midnight Rose was something else. Even then, how was he that fast and that strong? It was like the guy had no weakness! She shuddered. It had even been HER own weapon that he'd beaten her with.

"Let's just say you're not the only one with a few tricks, my little Rose." he said, grinning. Ruby blushed with the sentiment, sure she'd never been called that before. Jet was still very close to her, and it felt like they were the same height, though in reality Jet was slightly taller than her.

Immediately, without warning, without any sign, without pause, all the emotions she had felt during the previous encounters with Jet, both in real life in her dreams, came flooding through her mind. Curiosity, suspicion, longing, fear and love all jockeyed for position in Ruby's mind, a veritable tempest of emotion that sucked rational thought out of her head. Except for two things.

She knew that she loved Jet.

And that he loved her.

Almost being overwhelmed by this sudden onset of emotion, Ruby did the only thing she thought was right. She kissed Jet. Full on the lips. Blushes appeared on both of their faces upon contact, and Jet hissed in surprise, but didn't pull away. For a moment, Jet merely stood there, his lips still against hers. Then, Ruby felt arms wrapping around her, slowly pulling her closer. Both had closed their eyes. Jet's lips were soft but firm, masculine but gentle in their administrations. Ruby revelled in a feeling of harsh triumph coupled with overwhelming embarrassment.

They stayed like that for what felt like hours, before they finally broke apart. Ruby felt an unnatural warmth flowing through her body. No. This was natural. She was so glad she'd done what she'd wanted to do for some time, Ruby nearly missed Jet muttering to himself. She opened her eyes, seeing Jet with a neutral expression, blushing, but no other outward emotion, eyes still shut. Ruby's heart skipped a beat. Had she done the wrong thing?

"I think… you're proven my suspicions." Jet said, opening his eyes, and emerald met silver.

"What suspicions?" Ruby asked, barely a whisper, the pair still blushing.

"We had the same feelings for each other." he simply stated, before Ruby locked him in another gentle kiss, which he did not refuse, rather he drew her closer towards him so that they were in a tight embrace. He fell against the solitary tree on the hill, and neither moved, bathing in the warmth of the other, Ruby on top of him in the morning sun.

* * *

From afar, Blake watched the pair, having witnessed everything. She had seen Izzet's reversal of time on Ruby's wounds, making it so that they had never occurred. She had to hand it to the silent girl; there were times when that ability would have come in handy. She was covering her presence with her new favourite novel, Twice Ninjas of Love, but this was one of the few times that she could not focus on her book, instead being entranced by what she was seeing.

Of all the girls on her team, it had been Ruby Rose who had found love first. Sure, Weiss and Neptune seemed to be nearing the dating stage, but that couldn't match the spectacle she was witnessing. It was both terrifying and heart-warming, and as the two broke apart, she made a mental promise to herself and the two lovers that she wouldn't mention it to another soul. They would tell when their time was due, Blake thought, smiling as she disappeared from the scene.

Something of a novel was clearly in the making here.

Here, in real life.

* * *

Jet was in heaven.

So it HAD been true.

Ruby was in love with him. His gambit with Yang had paid off. And now, he was savouring the spoils.

He gently shifted Ruby, who was still on top of him, onto her side, so that they laid side by side. Neither deepened the kiss, yet neither broke the lip lock. Their arms were around each other, and Jet could feel Ruby's heart beating through her skin.

Yes. Her heartbeat. Through her lips, her pale fingers intertwined with his own, and even through her own clothes. It was a beautiful remedy to his nerves before she had shocked him with the kiss. He had to admit, things had progressed very quickly between them. Was he surprised?

Yes. Without a doubt.

Did he dislike it?

No. Without a doubt.

He let go of Ruby, and slowly broke their kiss. Neither of them had used their tongues, or done anything other than hold each other with their hands. Jet knew that Ruby was most definitely inexperienced.

He was, too. While he hadn't expected her to kiss him or be okay with kissing him, he was definitely NOT going any further.

Jet knew he was the kind of guy who'd prefer to take things slowly. And while something had drawn him to Ruby, his patience was legendary from whence he came. He was, as some had described him, a slow burner. And if Ruby's blush and nervous silver eyes were any indication, she was too.

"So, what do we call ourselves now?" Jet asked her. His voice was a quiet as a whisper, yet in the peaceful quietude of Sunset Hill in the morning, it may as well have been an ordinary level of speech. Her eyes flickered, but they didn't waver from his own. Ruby was definitely nervous.

"I don't know." Ruby said. Jet held back an 'aww' at Ruby's lack of experience and/or knowledge of all of this. Even though he knew he was closer to her age than she knew, he knew much about matters of the heart. Still, he wouldn't tease, or go too fast.

He would break the widespread opinion that the first romance always broke.

"Maybe a couple? How does that sound?" Jet suggested, flashing her a warm smile and a wink. He was rewarded by Ruby's own smile widening, some of the nervousness starting to fade from her eyes.

"Yes." Ruby responded softly. "You and me." She put her arms around him. "Please hold me. I just want to stay like this."

"I can do that." Jet assured, once more enveloping her with his arms. Ruby started to lean into the space between his right shoulder and his head, resting her head there. Jet leant over to whisper in her ear. "You've shown me your answer."

It was her love.

And he would connect with her. He would make sure she was safe from all the dangers in this awful world. The creatures of Grimm, the White Fang, none of them would touch her now that he was with her.

"Now, I won't ever leave you." Jet added, leaning back to give Ruby a bit of room to readjust before he embraced her again.

To his surprise, Ruby did not. She jolted up, bolt upright, as if he'd just slashed her again with Midnight Rose. The move sent Jet sprawling, relaxed and unprepared as he was. Ruby turned to look at him, and there was genuine fear in her eyes.

Jet felt his aura immediately activate, the purple glimmer barely visible yet perceivable arcing across his skin as he watched Ruby. He was unarmed, but now he was ready for combat if needs be. And all the while, his thoughts were going into overdrive.

What had he said? Was it something he'd done? Done or said?

"D-don't say that." Ruby stuttered, her voice very fearful. She got to her feet quickly, and before Jet could stand, she disappeared in a flash of rose petals.

It took Jet a moment to calm his mechanical heart, which had started racing at the demand of his mind and muscles. Once he had, he reached out and took a rose petal. He turned it in his hand, curling it, gentle so as not to tear the delicate little thing.

Just like he'd surely torn Ruby. With that promise to not leave her.


	5. Chapter 5 - Fluctuations

"Now, I won't ever leave you." Jet reassured, leaning back to give Ruby a bit of room to readjust before he embraced her again.

To his surprise, Ruby did not. She jolted up, bolt upright, as if he'd just slashed her again with Midnight Rose. The move sent Jet sprawling, relaxed and unprepared as he was. Ruby turned to look at him, and there was genuine fear in her eyes.

Jet felt his aura immediately activate, the purple glimmer barely visible yet perceivable arcing across his skin as he watched Ruby. He was unarmed, but now he was ready for combat if needs be. And all the while, his thoughts were going into overdrive.

What had he said? Was it something he'd done? Done or said?

"D-don't say that." Ruby stuttered, her voice very fearful. She got to her feet quickly, and before Jet could stand, she disappeared in a flash of rose petals.

It took Jet a moment to calm his mechanical heart, which had started racing at the demand of his mind and muscles. Once he had, he reached out and took a rose petal. He turned it in his hand, curling it, gentle so as not to tear the delicate little thing.

Just like he'd surely torn Ruby. With that promise to not leave her.

The only question now was a simple one, yet it was a question with many different answers: Why? Why had it inspired such fear in Ruby? Fear enough to make her flee in terror? Was it how he'd said it? No, that couldn't be it.

Jet stood up and stretched. He WAS worried about Ruby, but the last thing he wanted to do was make her any more terrified of him than she'd seemed to be. He reached behind his jacket, and felt for the hidden zips on the back. Unzipping them all the way, he allowed his wings, which had been compressed against his back, to unfurl and stretch.

That he had wings in the first place might have contributed to Ruby's fear. A lot of people linked his wings to that of a Nevermore, and the one thing he knew most about humans and faunus was that they all considered the creatures of Grimm to be their mortal enemy. If people associated him with them, as some had upon seeing them…

He took flight soaring upwards, and then banking towards the Emerald Forest.

A little time up in the clouds would give him a little time to think.

* * *

Yang was having a pretty normal weekend day. Following her discovery that everything proceeded as they normally did when she woke up on the weekend, namely everyone being up before she was, Yang stepped into the shower, knowing that if things were normal, she'd be able to have her shower in peace.

So to say she was surprised when she heard the door opening would have been an understatement. A flump that sounded like something hitting a bed, followed by a creak that had to be those ropes attached to Ruby's bed. Then, a sob. A very distinctive sob.

"Ruby?" Yang asked, turning off the shower before she could lather up or wash her hair. Another sob followed by a sniffle, then the sound of quiet crying. Yang felt her stomach drop as she wrapped a towel around herself, before stepping out of the bathroom.

Sure enough, Ruby was on her bed. Her head was buried in a pillow, and she was curled up in a ball. Yang recognised within moments that her sister was frightened. But of what? There was no Grimm that could scare her lil' sis, and…

Oh.

Yang felt anger build up as her mind came to that conclusion.

But Jet was a nice guy. He wouldn't do that to someone that had a crush on him.

Would he?

"What's wrong Rubes?" Yang asked.

What followed was the fastest Yang had ever heard Ruby speak, as she raised her head.

"OkayIjustneedtobealonebutpleasetellJetI'msorryhescaredmewithwhathesaidbutIstillwanttogooutwithhimandjustellhimI'msorryand-mmph!" Yang cut her off but clamping a hand over her sister's mouth.

"Rubes, slow down." Yang said. "What's wrong?" Tears were streaming down Ruby's eyes and her whole face was red. Yang had only seen her sister that miserable once before, and it did not bode well. That, and the fact that she had just run off her problem at a speed comparable to her own semblance also did not bode well.

"He… he said the thing that my mum said." Ruby replied, starting to hiccup. "He -hic- told me that -hic- he wouldn't leave me and -hic- I ran. Now he might think I -hic- ditched him right after I kissed him."

"Wait, wait, hang on." Yang said, trying to get a handle on the situation. "You kissed him?"

"I was training with him and he beat me, then he -hic- flew to Sunset Hill. I kissed him, just out of the blue, and he -hic- accepted me, Yang!" Ruby said, smiling briefly despite her tears and broken voice. Then, her smile fell. "We kissed for a long time, then he… -hic- he said it, and I ran away." Ruby's head went back into the pillow, but Yang wrenched her shoulder so that Ruby was looking at her, right in the eye.

"Hold on." Yang replied calmly, waiting for Ruby to slow her breathing. "What did he say?"

There was an awkward pause, during which Ruby stared at her. For a moment, Yang didn't expect Ruby to speak. Then, she broke the silence.

"That he'd never leave me." Ruby said, a tear leaking out of her left eye.

Ah. That was the issue.

"We have to find him, Ruby." Yang said, calmly, putting on her big sister shoes (so to speak). "You can't just run away from him just like that. He's probably wandering around, hurt and confused 'sis. He doesn't know about your mum, or about what happened." Ruby sniffled, but nodded. "The longer we leave him, the harder it'll be for him. Think about it from his position, Rubes."

She stepped back as Ruby dried her eyes on her sleeves and then hopped off her bed.

"You just confirmed that your girlfriend loves you, and confessed your own love. You cuddle with her, then when you try and tell her something you think will help, she runs away. Wouldn't you feel worried and hurt?" Yang continued. "Let me get dressed, then we'll go and find him. If we're lucky, he'll understand once we explain it to him."

* * *

A single leaf fell behind Jet. It brushed against his left wing.

He stood atop one of the tallest trees of the Emerald Forest. Perfectly balanced, on a single, bare foot. He had changed his clothes, taking a simple grey tank top with holes to accommodate his wings and black shorts that only reached his knees.

The black wings were enclosing him, his arms crossed around his chest. His aura sent an unnatural shadowy mist around him, one that coiled around him like a floating, ethereal cobra around a nest of eggs. In this state, safety from any corporeal threat was guaranteed.

It was true. The shadows were complete protection from dust-like attacks, his wings defended him from most elements, and from this position he could easily spring in almost any direction to evade a physical strike that he couldn't deflect.

But this held no defence from his inner demons. He was still wondering about Ruby.

What had he done? What could have possibly caused that kind of reaction?

It was definitely him at this point. That was the only explanation. He had been the object of his first girlfriend's fears. It hurt. It really hurt. There was no other explanations to have, nothing to blame.

Literally minutes after he'd told her that they were a couple, he'd done something to ruin it already.

His wings unfurled, and Midnight Rose appeared from seemingly thin air in his hands. The purple blade curved malevolently, and he turned his head to look down towards the floor of the forest. What he saw was four pairs of orange eyes filled with malice.

All looking at him.

Jet closed his eyes, drawing his wings inward, feeling a hidden power build form within his core. Strength.

More strength.

More strength!

He let himself fall backwards, the pressure in his chest building as he fell towards the pack of beowolves. They lunged, eager to slay him and gorge on his flesh.

He let the first claw close within a centimetre of his back before he released the power.

* * *

"So this is the last place you saw him?" Yang asked, standing on the peak of Sunset Hill. Ruby nodded vigorously.

She'd gone along with Yang's plan for two reasons.

One: She couldn't bear to lose Jet after he'd said that he'd loved her too.

Two: Even though she felt horrible at what she'd done, a bigger part felt worse for what Jet was going through, as Yang had described it. If she could help Jet, then Ruby would-

A red flash suddenly flared from the Emerald Forest to Ruby's right. Followed by a BANG that was clearly audible, then all the trees shook, sending startled birds soaring into the sky.

"What was that?" Ruby asked her sister, as she stepped in front of Ruby.

"Ruby, look." Yang said, pointing up at something in the sky. She turned her gaze skywards to see a black figure in the sky above the pinkish treeline.

That figure was winged, and Ruby could clearly see the scythe in its hands.

* * *

Jet stood in the center of a new clearing of the Emerald Forest.

One that he had made.

Pieces of bark covered in sweet sap littered this new space, which was the rough size of a swimming pool. Black pieces of corpses from the creatures of Grimm littered this ground, which itself was blackened with soot from the use of one of his potentially more powerful abilities. The stench of burnt wood was fresh upon the air.

Pain and death. That was what always surrounded him. Whether it was the Grimm, or the peoples of Remnant, it was always more pain and death.

Except this time, the pain was injected into his own heart. Jet shut his eyes.

One thing was certain about all of this. If Ruby Rose had run away like that, then their relationship had been broken moments before it had started. It didn't matter whether he knew of what it was, it was the simple fact that it HAD happened.

The death was her love towards him.

He felt anger build in his heart. It was justified. Every time that this had happened, it always led to the same outcome. Everyone suffers, and he was the catalyst. Every. Single. Fucking. Time.

A growl from behind him, and Jet opened his eyes. He turned his head in time to see an Ursa Major lumbering towards him, nostrils flaring as it picked up his scent. The eyes were fixed upon him, and it roared threateningly. Jet hissed in response, crouching and raising Midnight Rose, which had never left his hands.

"This is not a good time to push me around." Jet growled. He raised Midnight Rose even higher, and the blade grew until it was twice its normal size, before he leapt up into the air, using his wings to gain extra height, before diving towards the Grimm, somersaulting through the air, Midnight Rose trailing a purple aura.

He rolled over the top of the Ursa and then sprung off its back, before wheeling around.

He needn't have bothered. The Grimm's body only stayed together for a moment before both sides slid apart, drooling inchor upon the soot-covered, sap-spattered clearing. As Jet turned away from the halved Grimm, he gazed upon the laser blade of Midnight Rose, which had shrunk to its regular size.

The armour of most Grimm were impenetrable to non-dust based attacks. That meant that had he been using Crescent Rose, that trick wouldn't have worked. But with the blade of Midnight Rose, he had sliced that thing in twain.

"Pathetic." Jet said to himself. Normally an Ursa Major would have posed a threat, but here, with his new weapon, that thing hadn't posed any threat. Just one attack, and done. Next!

The black mist was coiling around him. His mind was fading. The grip he held upon his own body was beginning to vanish, slowly and meticulously, like a slow submersion into the black void that was the depths of the sea. He would let it happen.

Footsteps behind him. Jet hissed again. More? Were they more Ursa?

They wouldn't be alive for long. The darkness surrounding him was consuming him. Consuming his control, his restraint. Soon those Ursa would rue the day they came near him, as had the beowolves before, the Ursa Major…

No, the footfalls were too light. And if the corpse of a major was here…

Beowolves maybe?

Well, whatever they were, it was only more blood to anoint his blade with. Jet snapped out of his trance, the darkness around him disappearing. He would be the one to end the lives of the creatures approaching him.

The footsteps crunched as they reached the broken bark, then they stopped. Jet stretched his wings, then took fight with a powerful wingbeat, moving higher and higher until he cleared the treeline, before Jet turned around.

His heart caught in his throat. There was Ruby. Gazing up at him.

From up here, he couldn't tell if what he was looking at was fear or sadness. Possibly both.

"Jet! Can you come down?" That was Yang's voice, and sure enough, she was right behind her sister. Jet tossed his scythe into the air, and it vanished, returning to his aura as black dust. He then put his hand beside his sides before concentrating on Yang.

 _'_ _Are you here about what happened between Ruby and I?'_ Jet sent at Yang, using Izzet's power. She looked surprised, but only for a moment.

"Yes! Ruby wants to tell you something!" Yang called, looked earnestly up at him. So he held all the power now? But what was Ruby going to say to him? Would it be a plea for forgiveness? An explanation?

Or a rejection?

Jet folded his wings against his back, and plummeted. He buffered his aura just before impact. The ground that he hit crunched underfoot, the sudden attack against the ground itself sending sap covered bark and earth flying in all directions.

He was watching Ruby, who fidgeted under his gaze now, and Jet felt his heart sink. Not good, if she wasn't able to look him in the eye. Or maybe it was guilt?

You know what? Shut up, brain.

"Go ahead. I'm in a listening mood." Jet responded. He shifted his gaze between the two sisters, eventually focussing on Yang, being the only one who'd spoken to him. She nudged her sister.

"I'm sorry, Jet." Ruby said, and Jet immediately locked eyes with her. "I just… I'm sorry. Can I do anything to make it up to you?"

So it was an apology.

"One of the things you can do for me is listen." Jet said, irately. He turned away, hating himself for this, but Ruby needed to know. "When you ran away, I spent a long time wondering what the hell happened. I flew here, and I still had no idea what had happened. Scenarios running through my head, lines of dialogue. Trying to work out what it was about myself that scared you that much, or what I said."

"Jet?" Yang asked. Jet turned to face them again, treating them to his coldest look.

"I never worked it out. And I was hurting. Because I thought I'd lost you." Jet said, watching Ruby and Yang wither under his watch, part of him feeling a savage pleasure at letting them know how much pain he'd felt, and the other part treating him to a feeling of nausea at his actions.

The second part was stronger than the first. Jet closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He was going too far. Sure, they had worried and hurt him, but at the same time he wasn't out for revenge. No. If anything, he WANTED Ruby to come and find him. And what was he doing?

Lashing out. Like an idiot.

He opened his eyes again, and lowered them along with his voice, softening his gaze.

"Just… please explain to me why you ran away." Jet said, attempting to stay in control. A teardrop falling from his left eye betrayed his front of pure anger, and he knew that while Ruby wouldn't pick up on it, her sister certainly would. Sure enough, he heard two pairs of feet stepping towards him. They were definitely human.

"Chin up, Jet." Yang said. "Let Ruby look you in the eye and tell you."

If he hadn't been felling such a roiling tide of emotions, he would have been embarrassed for two friends, one being his girlfriend, to see him like this. But, as Jet raised his eyes to look into silver ones, he saw genuinely sorry eyes. Ruby was staring at him in a way that reminded him of a puppy that had made a mess, and was now begging for the forgiveness and attention of its owner.


	6. Chapter 6 - Powers Awoken

"I… I lost my mom. When I was five." Ruby spoke slowly, Jet immediately picking up on the fact that Yang had put a hand on her sister's shoulder. "She said what you'd said to me. That she wouldn't leave me." A tear formed in one eye, then another. They were small, but Jet could clearly see their presence. "She said that on the day that she died. When they… when they-"

Ruby said no more, instead turning away and crying into Yang's shoulder. The blonde had crouched and was holding her, but the lilac eyes were still on Jet. He tilted his head, as if to say 'Please continue.' Even as he did so, his mind was putting two and two together.

"Summer Rose. That was her name." Yang said, keeping Ruby's sobs confined to the rapidly moistening patch on her shoulder. "She was out on a hunt in the day. Was supposed to come back. She didn't." Jet lowered his own gaze. "We didn't hear about what had happened until the next day. And just like that, Ruby lost more than her mother." Jet felt a hand on his chin, and found his face being raised so that he and Yang were seeing eye-to-eye. "She lost the human being that she was closest to. Closer than me, our dad, anyone." Ruby raised her head at that point and looked at Jet.

"When you said that to me, I was scared. Scared I'd lose you in the same way." Ruby said, nervously, clutching her sister's arm. It was a pathetic sight, and one that melted the steel armour around Jet's heart. What had he been thinking? Ruby cared for him, this was evidence in black and white.

Jet stretched out a hand. Enough with all this. It was time to put this behind him.

"We were both scared and confused. We are both at fault here." Jet said directly to Ruby. He locked eyes with Yang, and she nodded. He held out his arms, looking at Ruby again. "Let's leave this behind. And please, please tell me if anything I say scares you at all like that. Come here."

Jet had been expecting Ruby to be hesitant.

To look up at Yang for confirmation.

To give him even a second to react.

None of the above rang true. Instead, Jet fell to the ground within milliseconds, Ruby on top of him, hugging him tighter than Jet had every felt before. His aura, which had been raised instinctively, was not fast enough to block her, not that Jet had wanted to. It did protect him from the impact with the leafy, sticky ground, however.

"Yes yes yes Jet!" Ruby cried happily. "Of course I will!"

Scary that her apparent fear had turned on its head within literal moments.

Ah well.

"Just one thing." Yang spoke from above him. She gestured around her at the clearing that his power had created. "How the hell did this happen? And why do you have wings?"

Jet sighed as Ruby rested her tear-stained head on his chest.

"It's a long story." Jet replied. "And I'm not telling it here."

He tried to rise, but Ruby was NOT budging.

"Get up, you big lump!"

* * *

"I think there quite a few teams still remaining." Jet said to Ruby as he stoked her hair lightly. Ruby, who was standing close to him, nuzzled into his chest.

"Soon I'll need to return my dead tree branch to the earth." Ruby whispered, and looked up at Jet just in time to see him raise an eyebrow. Perhaps he hadn't expected her to know what a jet stone could sometimes be. Joke's on him.

"I don't think I've been preening my little rose enough. She's grown thorns." Jet replied in an undertone, giving her a steely look mixed in with playfulness.

It was two days after Jet had made up with Ruby, and a tournament had begun within Beacon in preparation for the Vytal Festival tournament under Ozpin's jurisdiction. Team RWBY had faced off against two teams so far, and Ruby thought they had wrecked the two opposing teams. Now, they had entered the rounds where only two could participate.

This knocked Ruby's conscience a little, for she and Yang had been voted up, and while her friend and partner had assured her multiple times that she was 'over the whole thing', she couldn't shake the fact that the looks she got from Weiss were a little less… friendly. Ruby shook her head free of such thoughts. It was probably just her.

"Think you can take me and Crescent Rose?" she asked as Jet broke the hug, her competitive voice now in action.

"Midnight Rose and I cannot be defeated. I would never displease my darling." Jet responded, in a very over-the-top posh British accent that caused Ruby to giggle despite herself at the ridiculousness of the fake accent. It honestly sounded like the most snobbish person she could have ever met. "Oh pish posh! Stifle your laughter! You've yet to see what else she can do." he said, seemingly strengthening it to even more ridiculous speech, and Ruby couldn't help herself.

She burst out laughing, nearly collapsing as her legs turned to jelly, her chest heaving as she tried her best to calm herself down. Jet was clearly not going to help matters, however, even as he steadied her with his arms.

"What's the joke?" Yang asked, unseen. Jet tightened his grip on Ruby just as she was beginning to regain control of her body and breath.

"Nothing of note, my fair lady. Simply a matter of making a fool of myself with this positively ridiculous accent and slaying this fine maiden with irrefutable laughter." Jet replied, the accent having gotten so bad that it now sounded like he was holding his nose on top of everything else, and Ruby collapsed into his chest, now positively crying with laughter at how stupid it sounded.

"Nice." Yang said after a snort from which Ruby clearly divined that her sister was trying to contain her own mirth. "Did you see the pairing for the first set of pair matches?"

"No." Jet responded, this time in a normal voice. Ruby heard Yang snort again, and looked up to see an evil grin on her sister's face, one that caused Jet's eyes to harden, and Ruby's breath to catch in her throat as she released him before returning to her sister's side.

"You're facing CFVY. One of the strongest teams in school." Yang responded, not dropping her grin at the sight of Jet's steely gaze. "Hate to say it bud, but you're done. Ruby and I have to handle CDNL. Those guys'll be a joke."

"How do you know that we won't win?" Jet asked.

Now Ruby took a step back from her companion, still wiping her eyes a little, yet all traces of amusement had gone from her mind. Was he serious? She'd seen Coco and Yatsuhashi fight. No matter how quick Jet had seemed during their practise match, she knew in terms of power, they would slaughter Jet and his partner.

Yet Jet's face held anything but fear. In fact, Ruby could see the first glimmers of a smirk on his face, something Yang hadn't missed, as her own smile began to waver before Jet's confidence.

"Power is relative." Jet continued, clearly aware of the bombshell he had dropped. "While it is true that they have Izzet and I beat in terms of raw strength, I find that I rarely need strength to best my opponents." He walked away from Ruby and Yang, in the direction of the dorms.

Ruby shared an awed look with her sister. Either Jet was very confident, or very stupid. He looked back at the pair of siblings.

"Did anyone say I'd fight them on their terms?" Jet posed, before he rounded a corner, and out of sight, leaving Ruby to ponder what he'd meant. She and Yang were silent for a moment, before her sister stepped in front of her.

"You've definitely picked an interesting one, sis." Yang said.

* * *

Jet stood alone as Izzet donned her armour for battle against CFVY in a separate changing room. It was an early evening, which normally would inspire more confidence in him, as hours of darkness often brought comfort and strength to him. However, tonight, Jet would be lying to himself if he said that he was not afraid.

 _'_ _Who are you to know fear? You know not of your true potential._ ' A gravely, almost bestial, feminine parody of Jet's own voice spoke from inside his head. Jet knew who this was, and her coming only heralded disaster.

"What do you want, sister?" Jet thought to it.

' _Really, we must find a better name for me than simply 'sister' or 'the void'. I was thinking Flux, since you are the embodiment of order within your mind and, while similar to you, I am also your opposite.'_

"Very well, Flux. My question still stands, however." Jet responded.

" _I'm getting hungry. It is almost too long since I last feasted on living energy. You should have given me those Grimm from before, back when Ruby ran away."_ Flux replied menacingly.

"Your hunger for aura energy ends in death. I will not let you seize control of me again." Jet hissed aloud, remembering what had happened the last time Flux had won control of his body.

 _'_ _Ever since you came to Beacon, killing the Grimm and performing your team's signature move has sustained me. But it has not satisfied me. I need aura energy, for it is my life's blood.'_ Flux growled.

"Suppose I was to let you die? What then?" Jet challenged, but he heard Flux laughing. The sound echoed in Jet's mind.

 _'_ _I am you. You are me. If one of us dies, the other follows. I don't want to die, but I also don't want you to die, my brother.'_ Flux whispered, losing some of the bestiality of her voice.

"If you care for me, then why can't you see that your killings bring me great sorrow?" Jet asked.

 _'_ _I do, and it pains me, but we cannot co-exist while you still refuse to give me a boost every once in a while, or lend me control of our body. I've not given you any reason to not trust me while I'm not starving.'_ Flux said.

"Then how about this? I will learn to trust you again after you've proven yourself worth my trust. I will give you a chance." Jet replied, softly.

' _That is all I ask for, my brother.'_ was her only reply.

As Jet exited the changing room, and made his way to the entrance of the arena, he felt Izzet appear behind him. He stopped, holding out his left hand, and she took it in her own hand, which was covered in a steel glove, the glove of Temporal Tempest.

 _'_ _We're facing Coco and Yatsuhashi, aren't we?'_ Izzet asked, the voice sounding slightly worried. Jet was glad. It meant that she recognised the gravity of their situation, yet also that she was confident that he would have a plan. And fortunately for her, he did.

 _'_ _We are. And all of the pieces are already in place.'_ Jet sent back, confidently. _'If all goes well, their massive weapons won't do much to fighters like us.'_

 _'_ _You say that, and yet the sheer force speaks volumes.'_ Izzet responded, as they rounded a corner, passing some students. Jet allowed himself a quiet chuckle.

 _'_ _Force will not matter in this fight.'_ Jet replied. _'And you know that I can be far stronger than the two of them put together. They are nothing compared to my true power.'_

 _'_ _If we are forced to use it, I will gladly lay myself low for you.'_ Izzet said, as they neared the two steel doors, that marked the right entrance to the arena. Jet had passed through these doors once before. He remembered the exercise that had been part of a test devised by Ozpin to test his potency in combat.

They had never seen what Jet knew he could truly do.

And neither had anyone else outside of his team.

 _'_ _With our power, between your chronomancy and my abilities, none can stand in our way.'_ Jet reassured her. He gave her hand a squeeze, and she responded in kind.

 _'_ _What is our plan?'_ Izzet asked, as the doors to the arena started to open.

 _'_ _Follow my lead.'_ Jet replied, as the sounds of cheering students greeted his ears. Unfortunately for both him and Izzet, all seemed to be cheering for their opponents, with those cheering or booing at them clearly not being heard. It would be a shame when they were disappointed.

He strode across the arena towards Coco. Her eyes, reminiscent of a true noblewoman, were locked with his own. Jet levelled his own steely gaze as he approached her, still holding Izzet's hand. He saw Coco's eyes narrow as Izzet released him.

* * *

Ruby, in the midst of the crowd of students, watched as Jet reached Coco, and Izzet drew level with Yatsuhashi. While Jet and Coco shook hands firmly, their eyes still fixed on one another, Yatsuhashi clearly took pity on Izzet when she extended her small hand, and responded with only two of his own fingers to match her.

Each pair then retreated ten paces backwards, their gazes unwavering. Ruby could only wonder what other tricks Jet had up his sleeve. He was fast. He had her semblance, judging by the black petals he sent flying when he fought.

She saw Jet pull out his weapon. Midnight Rose glimmered menacingly as Jet braced it on his shoulder in sniper form, turning his other to face Coco. Now all they needed was the-

"Begin!" Ozpin, who was overseeing the match, called.

The effect was instantaneous. Jet and Izzet literally became blurs, speeding towards their opponent's even as Coco's minigun started spitting lead. High calibre rounds flew around the pair as they closed with their targets, the aura of Jet and Izzet only going down a little as bullets glanced off their aura. They were too fast.

Ruby focussed on the blur that was trailing black rose petals, as it honed in on Coco. It flew directly over her, before becoming un-blurred. Coco swung her gun around, trying to hit him, but Jet took a quick step back before deploying Midnight Rose, the deadly laser blade slashing through the air as she too was forced to dodge backwards.

Coco was grinning however, as her weapon opened up again, and this time, Jet was in point blank range, with no possible way to dodge the devastating stream of lead that was coming. In the brief moment before it happened, Jet held up his left hand, and a flash of light erupted before their eyes!

Rubbing her eyes furiously to get her sight back, Ruby saw that Jet had not dodged, not swung his weapon in an attempt to counter or block, not even moved. Coco was firing her gun in full force, a hailstorm of bullets pelting at Jet, but instead of hitting him, they were hitting…

Weiss, who was sitting next to her, gasped and pointed out the familiar, purple tinted glyph originating from the palm of Jet's hand, currently absorbing all of the bullets Coco cared to fire at him. While she had her teeth gritted as she continued to try and break the shield, Jet's face was passive, simply watching as his dark glyph trapped the bullets, like a spider's web catching a swarm of flies.

"Where has he gotten that power?" Weiss asked, more to herself than Ruby. She would have to ponder that later, as Jet detonated the glyph in an explosion of dust that sent all of the bullets flying back at Coco, the speed at which they came back both denying any chance at evasion and stopping Coco's gun. They dug into her aura, and Jet leaped backwards just as Izzet joined him.

Wait, wasn't Yatsuhashi somewhere? Ruby tore her eyes off of Jet's fight to look at the aura indicators. Jet and Coco were at about fifty percent each, Izzet at thirty, but Yatsuhashi's aura was in the red, and that meant wherever he was, he was down. Ruby hadn't even been paying attention to Izzet's fight with the big guy. How had she beaten someone literally twice her height?

In the few short moments she'd been wondering, she heard an almighty crash coupled with both cheers from the crowd and the signature spinning up of Coco's gun, before she looked back to see both Jet and Izzet flying backwards, Izzet's aura plummeting to the edge of yellow and Jet's aura was at twenty five percent.

As both combatants hit the ground, Jet sprang to his feet and shielded the pair of them from further fire with another glyph, though with every hit Ruby noticed that his aura still went down. It was only a sliver, the bare minimum that could be shaved off an aura, but with the number of times he was being hit, it was steadily trickling away. The crowd roared in approval, clearly Izzet dealing with Yatsuhashi had caused much of an upset.

Izzet got up and put her hand on Jet's shoulder. They locked eyes. Ruby couldn't tell what was being said, but Jet clearly didn't like what was going on. Izzet gave him a determined look, and Jet bowed his head. Something was going on.

Still covered by the glyph, Izzet stepped back and spread her arms, baring her chest, looking as if she were about to embrace Jet if she didn't have a face that still reflected a steely determination. Jet raised Midnight Rose, and Ruby found herself suddenly very nervous. Even Coco had stopped firing now, and the whole arena suddenly seemed… deathly quiet.

Jet brought Midnight Rose down upon his teammate, the weapon emanating a black aura. The light of Izzet's aura was drained, sucked into the blackness of the weapon, and she crumpled, her aura completely gone. The aura indicator confirmed that she'd completely run out.

Jet then turned to face Coco, and made his glyph vanish now. His own aura was now glowing an ethereal blue as he locked eyes with her, the aura surrounding his weapon changing to match. Weiss elbowed her, the pain snapping her out of what Jet had done.

"Ruby, look." Weiss said in awe, pointing out the aura indicator. Ruby looked, and saw to her own awe, that it was now at 100%. Jet had been fully restored… by destroying his own teammate?

"How?" Ruby asked to no-one in particular.

And no-one would answer her question. Jet extended his wings, eliciting gasps from the whole crowd of students watching him, and took flight. With a battle cry reminding Ruby of a Nevermore's dreaded call, he raised his scythe, and his aura, glittering and arching around him, intensified, shining with new, brighter, purple light. The aura indicator underneath Jet's picture turned white and started pulsing slowly. A single word was visible over it.

Invulnerable.

Coco, clearly coming out of her own reverie, lit him up with gunfire again. Rounds flew around Jet, seemingly bouncing off his aura, no damage being taken. Ruby realised with a jolt that Coco had no idea that her rounds were doing absolutely nothing!

Then Jet struck. Ruby couldn't even see him. One second he was up in the air, the next, he had appeared right in front of Coco, aside her still-spitting gun, his scythe glowing pure white as it came down upon her classmate's head.

The explosion of purple fire hid the two fighters from view in a plume of grey smoke, but the aura indicator was not covered. From that single attack, Coco's aura had dropped to ten percent, right in the red, and Jet's had only just returned to the normal green colour. As soon as the smoke cleared, Ruby saw Jet, still surrounded by that pale purple aura, walking away from a downed Coco, who was blackened with soot from the explosion.

He took a bow just as the screen displayed LIJN as the winner, then took Izzet's hand as she appeared behind them, and the two of them vanished from the spot, not stopping to answer an understandably concerned Professor Goodwitch, whom Ruby had not even seen in the arena.

As soon as he did, Ruby got up, and ignoring her teammates, shot out of the spectators' area in a blur of rose petals.


	7. Chapter 7 - A Cursed Ability

It didn't take Ruby long to find Jet. He was where she knew he'd be.

At Sunset Hill. Just past the time of its namesake.

Ruby found him leaning against the single tree, staring at his own hand. A purple glow surrounded his hand, and it flickered as one might expect sunlight to reflect off the surface of the sea. Jet's face, illuminated by the ghostly light of his own hand, looked to be deep in thought, as if considering something deeply. Ruby noted that his wings were out of his clothes, and they were wrapped around his body. Had he just flown here?

"Hi Jet." Ruby greeted nervously as she drew nearer. Jet looked up, but his face didn't lighten at her presence like it had done before. The light around his hand vanished, and he lowered his hand. Something was wrong. Ruby could tell.

She sat opposite him, and looked into his eyes.

What she found were two icy emeralds that were devoid of happiness. It was a painful, barbed look. His mouth didn't twitch upwards in a smile like it normally did when he saw her. It was just like before, when he'd scared her by saying what her mom had said.

"Tell me, Ruby." Jet said, his voice darker than normal, quieter, a brooding tone. "Have you ever inflicted pain on other people to advance your own goals? To hurt someone else purely for your benefit?"

"No." Ruby said, in a calm voice. There was nothing she could remember doing. There were the numerous bad guys and Grimm she'd beaten, but that had been her or them, and nothing else came to mind. "Why did you ask me that?"

"My power comes from the suffering of others." Jet responded, looking away and towards the sunset. "What I did, the move that you saw, is one LIJN knows as Dark Ultimatum. I drain the aura of an ally, fully restore my own, and enable my strongest attacks." He looked down. "The ally has to willingly give their aura for me to suck them dry, like a leech. It makes me sick that this was my main way of gaining strength."

Ruby didn't know what to say. She'd seen Jet do it. Everyone had.

"Izzet's pain should have come from the enemy." Jet continued. "From Coco and Yatsuhashi. Not from her partner, from someone I know she trusts completely with her life. Not from me. But there's nothing I could, or can, do. The strength I needed in that fight could only come from her own. And like the evil bastard that I was, I took it, not feeling a single thing, not even remorse."

This was the first time Ruby had ever seen Jet like this. The self-loathing she was seeing was off the charts. Clearly Jet cared for his team, or he wouldn't be suffering over something like this. But when she'd seen Izzet just before she had sacrificed her aura, she had opened herself to Jet, willing to give her very essence to him.

That spoke far more than words.

It was then that Ruby noticed Jet's aura, purple like the glow from before, was pulsing and flickering, clearly responding to his emotions. She shuffled so that she was next to Jet, and put her arms around him. He felt cold, just like his eyes when she'd looked at him before. While Ruby didn't know what to say about his powers, she knew that his drive to win, and Izzet's, were all that mattered. He looked back up at her.

"I know we kissed before, that time after our match, but I'm afraid, Ruby." Jet said, before Ruby could offer her condolences, his shimmering eyes finally displaying vulnerability, a vulnerability completely at odds with the steely gaze Ruby knew he could give. "Dark Ultimatum isn't the full extent of my power, and I'm scared I might hurt you if I go out of control. I don't want to see you suffer, especially if it's something I've done. The truth is, about our kiss, I was wrapped up in the moment of finally kissing you, so much so that I forgot about my own curse."

"I don't care." Ruby responded, putting her hands on his shoulders. "I'm not afraid of your powers. If you used your powers on me, I wouldn't mind one bit. No, I would be happy to help you and give you strength."

To her surprise, Jet stood up, shrugging her hands off him as he rose, his wings unfolding and displaying their black feathers. Midnight Rose appeared in his hands, seemingly from thin air, and Ruby stood too, yet she didn't draw Crescent Rose, even though every instinct was driving her to pull it out.

"Please, draw your own weapon." Jet said, his eyes almost begging. Ruby hesitantly reached for Crescent Rose, not sure as to what he was planning.

They stood opposite one another, the low moonlight casting a shadow around Jet's face, leaving only his eyes in the light.

"If you really want to be with me, as we want to be, then you should see what I am truly capable of." Jet said, his eyes now full of steel as they once were. "I will duel with you once again, Ruby, only this time, I shall show you the full extent of my power. Dark Ultimatum has not ended yet."

Ruby crouched, as Jet took a deep breath. He closed his eyes, tilting his head back, as if determined to expand his lungs as much as possible. It occurred to Ruby only now about what he had said.

He'd been holding back? From using his real power? What was it? And what had she gotten herself into?

Then, Jet exhaled, and Ruby saw only a black void where his eyes had been. Even the whites of his eyes had gone dark.

He didn't hesitate. He didn't show any emotion.

Jet flew at her, scythe held aloft.

* * *

Ruby was having a nightmare. There was that same gravestone atop the snowy cliff. She ran away from it, the memory of… that night… when she came face to face with the beowolf pack from before. Pulling out Crescent Rose, she began her fight. It always went the same way, every time she killed one, two took its place. Slowly, she was overwhelmed, Crescent Rose pulled away, being pinned to the ground, the glare of their eyes and the white teeth that would soon be biting into flesh…

Ruby awoke with a start. Breathing heavily, and breaking in a cold sweat, she noticed someone standing over her, and immediately lashed out, panicked. Her fist connected with something, and Ruby curled up into a ball, fear still haunting her mind, eyes shut tight. Someone was gathering her up in its arms.

"Shh. Easy now. You're okay." Jet's voice sounded out from behind Ruby. Ruby could feel herself shivering, even as the someone holding her started to radiate warmth. Slowly, she cracked open her eyes.

A crescent moon greeted her gaze with assorted stars. She looked around to find black feathers around her, feathers that were the source of the warmth. Then, she twisted to find Jet behind her, though from here she could only see the left side of his face.

"Did I hit you?" Ruby asked, worriedly.

"You did, and it would have done some damage." Jet responded with a reassuring smile. "But my reaction speed with my aura is known throughout my team."

It was only at that moment, as Jet unfurled his wings, that Ruby realized who's arms she was in. As Jet sat, leaning against the tree, Ruby realized, calming down now, that she and Jet were incredibly close together. Should she kiss him again? Before she could ask, Jet had seemingly read her mind.

His eye was the clue. It gave a passive look, rather than the harder looks. He was wearing a face that plainly said 'it's your choice'. Not judgemental, or prejudiced. And Ruby answered his question.

She leaned forward, closing her eyes, pouting her lips. She felt Jet respond in kind, only tilting his head a little, and their lips met again.

Except this time, Jet was slower, more patient. Gone was the speed that Ruby had found the first time they'd kissed. Now, Jet was gentle, not rushing her like before. His tongue remained in his mouth, instead only focussing on embracing Ruby. He fell backwards, narrowly missing the tree, and Ruby landed on top of him. The kiss didn't break.

The two raven wings protruding from Jet's back wrapped around Ruby as his arms went from being around her cloak to underneath her cloak. They broke apart in order to breathe, Ruby noticing the contact only now. Was Jet going to try and get into her clothes? Once again, Jet seemed to have read her fears like a book.

"Don't worry, I'm not going any further." Jet said, his voice quiet and tender. "And I don't mind you touching me, as long as you don't go any further than me."

Any further than him? Now Ruby was confused. She'd seen Yang with several boys before, and while she had pushed all of them away eventually, they'd always seemed… forceful. Much more forceful than Jet, with no respect of her sister's boundaries. And yet, not only was Jet not going further than she wanted, but he had boundaries of his own?

Maybe not all men were like Yang's flings.

"There you two are!"

A voice brought Jet out of his reverie. He let go of Ruby and sat up, causing her to roll off him. The voice had come from Yang, who was sprinting up the hill. There was a brief moment as she skidded past them, before running back towards them. Her face was red, as if she'd just run a marathon to reach them.

"What's happening?" Jet asked.

"Goodwitch." Yang panted in response. Jet's machine heart skipped a beat as she showed them her scroll. 10:04. Way past the curfew. "Sent me to get you, and that she'd better have a good reason."

"Does 'I was having a relaxing time with my girlfriend and missed the time' work?" Jet asked, causing Ruby to both snort at the straightforwardness of Jet's response, and blush as she registered that, while she had had reservations of what she called Jet, he clearly had no such reservations. Judging by the mirrored snort from Yang, she was similarly amused.

"Not really." Yang replied, as Jet stood and outstretched a hand to Ruby, who took it with her own, soft hand, and he hoisted her to her feet. He turned back towards Yang. "She said it would be detention if you two didn't have a good reason."

"Which is?" A second voice, this one above Jet, asked. Jet jumped, not expecting it, and immediately switched to combat mode as his companions jumped in fright too. Midnight Rose appeared in his hand, the scythe glowing malevolently as he leaped into the air, flipping himself upside down and slashing at the upper branches of the tree.

He hit steel.

Jet re-oriented himself and landed in the tree, before swinging the scythe backwards. It connected with something, a resounding clang echoing all around them, and Midnight Rose stopped moving as an opposing strength pushed against it. Jet turned his head, still fighting to push his weapon.

Professor Ozpin was crouched there, his cane having intercepted his laser-scythe. Looking at the blade, had it continued its course upwards in parallel to his back, it would have halved the old professor. Jet immediately made his weapon disappear and turned around. In response, Ozpin lowered his cane and took a sip from the mug in his other hand.

"Very impressive, Jet." Ozpin commented, leaping down from the tree with Jet. While he was pleased with the compliment, he hadn't expected his HEADMASTER to have been the one he nearly halved, let alone the fact that it had been him that had hidden in the tree.

"Ignoring the fact that I nearly struck you, what are you doing here, sir?" Jet asked as the silence from the two sisters stretched onwards. It seemed that unlike him, who had reacted with an attack, they had been stunned, but then had watched Jet immediately attack.

"Consider it an intervention of sorts." Ozpin responded. "And in part satisfying my curiosity. Professor Goodwitch will not be the one you will be speaking to with regards to your breach of curfew. It will be me. As I hear from the grapevine, I am a little less… intimidating."

Jet could practically feel how carefully he'd chosen that word, and the meaning behind his considerations. He'd let it go for now.

 _'_ _Sir, with all respect, you need not concern yourself with intimidation. Glynda Goodwitch is a lovely lady.'_ Jet sent to Ozpin, using his copy of Izzet's telepathy, before he switched to regular speech. "Did you hear my explanation for our lateness to Yang?" Jet asked him. Ozpin paused, potentially a little surprised by the duel communication.

"I did, and as Miss Long said to you, it wouldn't do. Normally, I would be forced to discipline the pair of you." Ozpin responded. Then, Jet heard him think back. _'I am glad you think so, though I must ask how you are on first name terms with Glynda.'_

"But you won't?" Ruby asked, hopefully as she clung onto Jet's arm. He extended a wing and wrapped it around her back, curling the other one behind him. Both Yang and Ozpin's eyes were drawn to them, Yang folding her arms and staring at them, whereas Ozpin merely looked with bright interest.

 _'_ _Long story.'_ Jet responded to Ozpin's telepathic question. _'And this place isn't the place to be discussing it.'_

 _'_ _Quite right.'_ Ozpin sent, before using his physical tongue. "No, Ruby, I will not, provided I gain an insight into Jet's wings. You see, while his wings are common knowledge to you, Ruby, hardly anyone else knows about them. The rumours outside his team have been quite widespread. A winged boy wielding a flaming staff, perched perfectly upon one of the tallest antenna in Vale, one who wears all black clothing, and who has similar facial features to you, Jet. Then, I check the logs and you do indeed have the same wings, but have never brought them out within Beacon, instead keeping them concealed."

"So in return for letting them off the hook, you want to know about them?" Yang asked. Jet narrowed his eyes in response, maybe he'd be willing to divulge on his wings, but not their origin. Nor was he going to give hints on his other abilities, those he had before he had come to Beacon, including Dark Ultimatum.

"Precisely." Ozpin replied, still keeping his eyes on Jet's. He felt a tug on the arm Ruby was currently holding, and looked at her. Her eyes said it all for him. She really didn't want a detention or punishment, and while he had been considering taking the hit and withholding the information, his wall broke upon seeing his girlfriend's reaction. That would have been selfish. Jet let out a sigh.

"Cheer up." Jet said to her, and her expression lit up. "I'll spill them. Besides, you must have been curious as well, both of you." He raised his voice at the last part, and turned his head to Yang, who nodded, her expression neutral. Finally, he turned back to Ozpin.

"Excellent. All I require is for you to fly above us." Ozpin replied. "I will escort these fine ladies back to their dormitories, and you will provide us with cover in case any Grimm happen to be nearby."

"As you wish." Jet responded.

* * *

Ruby watched as Jet walked about five paces away, before fully unfurling his wings. Their span was impressive, almost two and a half times the length of his arms. His eyes glimmered an eerie purple glow as he crouched before breaking into a sprint.

He shot past them, before his wings caught and he soared upwards, barely illuminated as he flew for a good hundred metres before banking around and flying over them. He stopped in front of the moon, righting himself and keeping himself aloft with regular, powerful wingbeats.

"Extraordinary." she heard Ozpin comment as he beckoned her and Yang to follow him. She trailed in his footprints, nearly matching him step for step until Yang lightly tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention.

"So what happened?" Yang asked as they passed by several more trees on the way. "You had us worried back there. What were you two talking about?"

"About his move back then in the two-on-two we watched." Ruby replied, her voice losing some of her normally upbeat tone. Yang noticed as well, for her voice dropped too.

"How did he do it?" Yang asked.

"We didn't talk about how he did it." Ruby replied, her voice speeding up. "I don't know. Something about him just sounds different to me. He didn't smile like he always does, and he asked me if I'd hurt anyone to get stronger." Yang waved her hand in the universal 'Slow down'. "Sorry. I said that I hadn't and then he said that his partner's pain had to come from his enemy, not him. Anyway, I said to him that I didn't care and then he challenged me to a fight where he'd show his true power."

"Woah woah, hold on." Yang said, her concern clearly growing as Jet passed by overhead. "You fought him? What happened?"

"I-" Ruby stopped. What HAD happened? She racked her brain, but nothing came to light. She couldn't remember anything, just that she'd seen Jet lunge, then she'd had a… nightmare? Had she fallen asleep? Why? How? Why?

"Ruby?" Yang asked, now looking downright worried.

"I don't remember." Ruby said. "All I know is he jumped at me with his Crescent Rose, then the next thing I remember is a nightmare. I wake up and Jet's standing above me. I punched him… by accident!" she squeaked as Yang raised an eyebrow.

"Is that why he has a black eye?" Yang asked.

Ruby froze. In place.

No.

She couldn't have.

"I saw it as he was about to fly." Yang continued. "And I've given many black eyes before now to know a punch when I see one." Ruby's mind was going into overdrive. Why had he just said that it hadn't been so bad?!

"I didn't mean it!" Ruby speed-spoke. "I was scared from the nightmare and he was right above me and I just lashed out and oh my gosh I'm sorry!" Anything else she was about to say was cut short by Yang wheeling around and putting both her hands on her shoulders.

"Firstly, calm down." Yang said, patting Ruby on the head, a gesture Ruby normally hated, but she didn't complain here. "Secondly, it was just an accident, okay? If it bothered Jet too much, don't you think he would have said it to you?" She let go and gave Ruby a reassuring smile.

"What's the holdup?" Jet shouted from above as he circled above them. Now that Ruby could see the right side of his face, by Beacon's light, she saw the black welt around Jet's right eye, which was visible despite the purple glow coming from his eyes. Ruby's hands went to her mouth.

So it was true. She had punched him.

Feeling sick at herself, Ruby barely registered Yang taking her by the hand and leading her back to Beacon. Inside her guilt-stricken mind, she could only hear one thing.

What had she done?


	8. Chapter 8 - Derailed

Jet landed softly before Ozpin, within the boundary of Beacon's perimeter walls. He was physically drained. Normally, he wouldn't have had to fly for so long. Either he would have run.

Or… he could have…

No. THAT would remain a secret.

Until the time was right.

"So, the wings you bear are fully functional, I take it?" Ozpin asked, his expression one of bright curiosity.

"Yes, though my body is not fully designed for them originally, so using them drains me. It's even harder, but I can also carry a single person on my back when I fly." Jet responded. "Naturally, doing so will limit the manoeuvres I can perform."

"How interesting." Ozpin remarked, as Jet saw Ruby and Yang arrive out of the corner of his stinging right eye. "You did not use them when I tested you privately."

Jet remembered his private testing with the omniscient headmaster. He was one of the few people who knew the full truth about him, perhaps even more than Jet knew himself, and had conducted his examination of Jet in private. Ozpin had fought him personally, and Jet had shown him the height of his capabilities back then, sans his true power. He had promised never to tell another soul.

He had not revealed his wings back then.

"I only use them to gain access to higher terrain, and my limited movements make me a sitting duck." Jet replied. "And against you, I could not concede any weakness."

"Woah, woah, you did a fight with Ozpin?" Yang asked, Ruby having turned away. Jet knew why. He'd underplayed Ruby's punch. Truth be told, it had hurt like hell, but he'd hoped his aura would have healed it before she spotted it. First though…

"I did." Jet tilted his head towards his headmaster in response. "Before I was admitted, I was a little, what's the word?"

"Reckless?" Ozpin supplied, a humorous glint in his eye, one that Jet did not miss.

"Understatement of the year, sir." Jet responded, earning a chuckle from him. "I thought I could take him on, that what I had at the time was the peak of human strength. How wrong was I, sir?"

"Substantially. But your unique ability certainly surprised and concerned me." Ozpin replied. "It was not one I had seen for a long time."

"What was it?" Yang asked. Ozpin locked eyes with Jet, a question in his eyes.

 _'_ _In my own time, please.'_ Jet sent. Ozpin raised his eyebrows, something Jet nearly mistook for doubt. _'When I'm ready for it to be known.'_ Jet continued. Ozpin kept his gaze on him for a moment longer, before turning back to Yang.

"Um, what were you two doing?" Ruby asked quietly from beside Jet, causing him to jump. He hadn't seen her move, nor any of the tell-tale rose petals that fluttered around after her semblance's use. There again, he hadn't been watching.

"I can use Izzet's telepathy." Jet replied, turning just in time to see guilty silver eyes on Ruby. He reached out and took her hand, so that they were walking side-by-side. A slight resistance, followed by an acceptance of his hold, and then a slight readjustment of her own.

"I'm sorry about your eye." Ruby said, a sheepish tone to her voice.

"Don't worry about it." Jet responded, glancing to his right side, only making the connection now that Ruby could see his sore eye. As expected, she looked very guilty, almost as guilt-stricken as she was on that day when he'd said the wrong words.

"Does it hurt a lot?" Ruby asked tentatively. Her bottom lip trembled.

It DID hurt like some of his more worse-for-wear injuries. But Jet knew better than to tell her that.

"No." Jet replied. "I said before that my aura had taken the worst of it. Don't worry."

Ruby had a look on her face that plainly said that she wanted to argue further. However, as they walked towards the dorm rooms, Jet deflected any further attempts to restart that particular conversation. The last thing he wanted was for his girlfriend to be guilty for something that she only partially had fault to.

* * *

Following a brief farewell to both the two sisters and Ozpin, Jet retreated to his own dorm room and opened the door to find only a darkness which could mean only one thing. One or more members of his team were in here, already asleep, but judging from the time, he reasoned that all three were in.

By the bare light of the unlit room, he leaped onto his own bed, before removing his jacket and shoes, tossing them off his bed in a pile below it. He then slipped underneath the soft purple covers, and laid his head upon an equally soft pillow.

Jet sighed happily as he sunk into his face-up sleeping position, staring at nothing but a black roof. He closed his eyes, listening to the whistle-like sound that was Izzet's every breath.

Sleep did not take long to claim him.

* * *

Lilac sat at the back of the alleyway that she'd agreed to meet Jet at. All she could see was light at both sides, flashing, glaring into this barely maintained grey corridor, with nothing to see within save two grey walls and a dark, night sky.

It was tomorrow. Tomorrow was the day when they'd get to go clothes shopping together. And Jet had agreed to accompany her while Izzet and Nouvelle got some bonding time of their own. She hadn't expected Jet to be so agreeable to her proposed friends' night out.

It often happened on a Saturday night. Jet would take her, Izzet or Nouvelle out for a night.

It had been enforced thoroughly that this was mainly time to work out any differences between teammates, back when the bonds between herself and the rest of the team hadn't been so strong. However, what was originally a night of reflection had been turned by Jet into a night of fun.

And Lilac agreed with that change.

Having familiarized herself with this spot, she prepared to walk back to Beacon. She'd come out very late, it was true, but Izzet knew where she was, and scaling the wall of Beacon undetected was easy when one could transmute her own hair into any material she desired (within reason, of course).

Lilac's blonde strings shimmered in the half-light as she started to walk out of the alleyway. Tomorrow would be a good night.

She only got three steps before her vision started to darken. As Lilac rubbed her eyes, attempting to clear them of this unnatural lessening of light, she heard footsteps behind her. Pronounced footsteps. They were closing in.

"Aren't you a sweet little catch?" a high-pitched, mocking voice sounded out from behind her. Lilac tried her utmost to turn around, to face this new threat. She couldn't even make out if it was a he or a she that had her paralyzed.

Her muscles felt like iron paperweights, useless body mass that clung to her. She couldn't move!

"Oh? You can't move? Perfect." the voice spoke behind her, followed by a shrieking laugh that left her shivering. Lilac's arms were sagging, hanging downwards. The darkness was deepening in her vision. Cold fear was starting to trickle down her back, icy droplets that bit with a shivering chill.

She was blind.

She couldn't move.

Lilac tried to rouse her semblance, tried to set her hair alight with a flame to light up this darkness, or at the very least try and attract attention from the people no doubt outside the alleyway.

It didn't work. Lilac couldn't feel any heat, nor hear any crackling, or see any light.

She tried again.

Nothing.

Then, she heard the baleful laugh again. It was much closer now. Sweat was pouring from her forehead. She wanted to scream, so, so badly. Please! Please! Someone!

But nobody came for her.

And no sound came out.

Things were beginning to roam across her body, many rope like things, feeling similar to a snake. The danced across the bare skin of her arms and legs, tickling and teasing. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she tried desperately to resist, to move, to do ANYTHING!

Nothing.

The ropes, snakes- whatever they were where moving up her legs, getting close to her core, lifting her skirt. Some were going down and up her top, coiling around her bra-clad breasts. A few were snaking through her hair. Hot breath was on her neck. Her panic was reaching its peak.

"Don't worry. I'm always gentle with my toys." the voice spoke, in a whisper against her hear. Lilac's breath caught in her throat. Something had shifted her panties aside, none of her clothes gone, and her underside was exposed. She was being lifted up, blindly, until her bare bottom was pointed towards her tormentor.

Lilac only barely felt the foreign touch of something on her entrance before her fear-filled mind blacked her out, ending her conscious' presence at whatever this person had planned.

* * *

Jet stretched as he opened his eyes. His bones let off little pops and cracks as he got his blood to flow once again, finally ending his morning ritual with a bigger stretch that caused his arms to go over the top of the head board of his bed, and his feet to emerge from underneath the royal purple sheets on the other side.

 _'_ _Good morning, Jet.'_ Flux greeted, as he sat up in his bed. She sounded oddly like a normal, human girl, but her tones of voice were still similar to his own, albeit feminine. _'How are you today?'_

 _'_ _I'm fine. Team night's tonight.'_ Jet replied. He threw the covers off of himself, revealing dark grey pyjama bottoms, which followed the theme of his shirt, which had a grey butterfly wing-like pattern criss-crossing the front and back of the outfit.

Wait. Hadn't he fallen asleep in the clothes from last night?

Jet hissed softly. Flux could sometimes take control of him after falling asleep, and it looked like she'd changed into the pyjamas he often wore. While not unappreciated, as they were comfier than his usual wear, Jet did find it a little troublesome.

 _'_ _Did you do this?'_ Jet thought, tugging at his pyjama top.

 _'_ _I did. I do care about how comfortable you are, after all.'_ Flux returned. Jet didn't pass further comment. Sometimes Flux would do this sort of thing, just little things. His sister could be capricious at the best of times, or sometimes downright cheeky, but it was an endearing notion 100% of the time.

But even so, he had other things to track besides his sister persona's ways. The team night was one of them.

Lilac was the one he was going with tonight. And they were going clothes shopping, something which Jet considered an abhorrent waste of time. He never understood the sport of trying out several thousand different outfits and then not buy any at all (perhaps an exaggeration, but it was still ridiculous).

But it was something that Lilac enjoyed, and if he was being honest with himself, she would find a way to make it enjoyable for him, whether intentional or not. She'd always been the kind of girl who wanted to make everyone happy. And Jet was and always had been legendarily patient.

It wouldn't be so bad.

His eyes travelled across each of the beds of his teammates, which were hovering in the air in each of the three remaining corners of the dorm room, above a small, metal projector-like object that was pointed directly upwards.

Izzet was curled up in a ball around a pillow, facing his direction, her silver-haired head barely visible above the covers.

Nouvelle slept soundly, her head pointed straight up towards the roof of the room, small snores plainly audible in the sacred quietude. Her tanned skin matched the colour of her sheets, so much so that Jet would have considered it a camouflage of some kind.

But Lilac's bed was empty. There was no fun-loving blonde girl underneath her Hawaiian-style sheets.

 _'_ _Where is she?'_ Flux mused. ' _Wasn't she out last night?'_

 _'_ _Was she? I didn't check.'_ Jet responded.

 _'_ _When I changed our clothes, I looked up on the beds. Lilac wasn't there.'_ Flux replied. _'She doesn't go out overnight often does she?'_

No. Lilac might have been a girl of many escapades, but none of them were overnight. And she was always sending the rest of her teammates texts on their scrolls regarding both her location and when she intended to be back.

Jet hopped down from his own bed and turned around to the whitewood desk and chair underneath it, which was neat and tidy, all the books either within the matching chest of drawers beside it or in a stack to the far right of the surface. Jet's scroll was plugged into a socket, and he withdrew it before checking his messages, looking for and from Lilac.

Nada. Just a couple of adverts and a text from Izzet asking where he was at 9:48 last night.

 _'_ _Good morning Jet.'_ Izzet's telepathic voice came moments before her hand laid itself on his shoulder. Jet put his scroll down.

"Morning Izzet." Jet responded, before turning around to face her. She smiled, the sleepiness in her eyes apparent even before he took in the rest of her appearance.

She shared Jet's taste in evening wear, wearing a similarly designed top that instead was a dull red colour, and matching bottoms that showed off pale, lean legs that had been clean shaven. He could have sworn that her top's design also went to some length to emphasize her bust, which Jet knew was a C-cup (he'd overheard an... intense debate between all three members of their team on the attractiveness of their own… 'ornaments').

 _'_ _Where were you last night?'_ Izzet asked, putting a hand on her chin and tilting her head, a cheeky, if small, smile on her face. _'I texted you and everything. Novelle and Lilac wanted to say congratulations. I was worried.'_ Her smile dropped at this last sentence.

"Out with Ruby." Jet replied. "I was supposed to be on my own, but she found me within seconds." Memories of the match flashed by his eyes, dodging Coco's bullets, erecting a glyph to deflect them.

Using Dark Ultimatum.

"Are you okay?" Jet asked, dropping his gaze, staring at her feet.

 _'_ _Yes. Why?'_ Izzet asked, the voice in Jet's head taking on a concerned tone.

"I didn't want to use Dark Ultimatum. I hate using it." Jet answered. "You shouldn't have to do that for me."

He remembered the fight. That moment.

* * *

Jet landed flat on his back with a painful crash, the metallic floor doing nothing to deaden the painful impact. However, he couldn't rest. He leapt to his feet and pictured a pentagram shaped barrier between himself and Coco, making sure to cover Izzet.

Just in time, as the high calibre shells came, pitter-pattering against the shielding glyph, but Jet felt the sting as his aura was drained from every impact. He could hear the roars of the crowd, though whether or not it was in his favour or Coco's he couldn't tell.

 _'_ _Yatsuhashi's down.'_ Izzet sent as she rose up. _'But at this rate, we'll both fall to Coco if we don't do something.'_ She put a hand on Jet's shouder. _'Use Dark Ultimatum. All you have to do is hit Coco after that and she's finished!'_

 _'_ _No.'_ Jet responded, turning his gaze upon her own. Two mismatched, steely, determined eyes met his own _. 'I won't use that power. I'm not hurting you to gain strength.'_

Izzet let go of his shoulder and backed up, spreading her arms and baring her chest to him.

 _'_ _One way or another, only you can end this fight. Choose, Jet. Win or lose.'_ Izzet said harshly. Jet was torn now, he didn't want to lose in front of everyone, including Ruby, but he was scared to take the strength he knew he could gain by sacrificing Izzet's aura. But that power… it came from the pain of an ally, something that made him feel sick inside.

He raised Midnight Rose.

Jet would regret this later.

And he brought the black scythe down upon Izzet.

 _'_ _I… I'm sorry, Izzet.'_

 _'_ _Now, end this fight!'_

* * *

 _'_ _You were doing what I wanted you to do. If anyone's to blame, it's me.'_ Izzet said, breaking Jet's flashback. Jet looked up in time to see her own gaze had dropped.

 _'_ _You didn't raise Midnight Rose. You didn't swing her at your own teammate. And you weren't the one who felt the sick strength from the act in the aftermath.'_ Jet responded. _'That was me. You might have been the one that forced my hand, but I always had the choice. I chose to break your aura to satiate my own.'_ As he said it, Izzet looked back up. Tears were in her eyes. They were small in the older girl's eyes, but they were present.

 _'_ _Please, don't do this.'_ Izzet sent pleadingly. _'You agreed that if we were willing to sacrifice our auras for you, and that if you needed to, you would do it. The whole of Team LIJN agreed on that pact when we discovered Dark Ultimatum.'_ Jet sighed in response. She was right. They were a team, and if he needed to save them by using his power, then he would. He had sworn as much.

 _'_ _I'm sorry. You're right.'_ Jet conceded. Izzet reached out for him, and he responded by coming into her embrace and hugging her. She patted him lightly on the back. It was a rare privilege to be hugged like this by Izzet. It was only something she extended to close friends.

And he had known Izzet for years.

* * *

Ruby strolled down the corridor towards LIJN's dorm.

Jet hadn't been at breakfast. Nor had the rest of his team, though Ruby only knew Izzet, so it was quite possible the other two had been there and she just hadn't seen them. Ruby wouldn't have put it past herself, for someone that went so fast, many things could slip by her.

She was watching the numbers on the doors as she passed by.

38, 40, 42.

What was it that Jet had said just before he'd left last night?

44, 46, around a corner and 47.

"..if you wanted to find me, I'll be in 45."

49, 51-

Wait a second.

Ruby smacked herself in the forehead with the palm of her hand. She'd gone too far!

She retraced her steps, reaching 47 before rounding the corner again and bumping straight into Professor Goodwitch, who had been about to come around the corner.

"Oh! Morning, professor!" Ruby greeted cheerily, at first surprised but then happy to see another soul wandering around the deserted corridors at the weekend.

"Good morning, Ms. Rose." Goodwitch responded, looking a little tired. Nevertheless, she was still as prim and proper as ever. "Were you looking for another team? Your dorm room is at twenty-two."

"Yeah." Ruby replied. "I was looking for LIJN. Jet said that he was in forty-five."

"They're not in." Goodwitch responded, her face softening a little. "All of them are most likely in Vale by now."

"Wait, why?" Ruby asked, rocking slightly on her feet.

"One of their members has had a rather nasty… accident." Goodwitch replied. "All of them are headed for Vale General Hospital, where Ms. Ayune has been admitted. If I were looking for any of them, I'd find them there."

Ruby's heart, which she hadn't felt beating faster until now, slowed down a little. So it wasn't Jet, but was it Izzet? After that Dark Ultimatum move? Both Izzet and Jet had disappeared afterwards, and she hadn't stayed to watch the aftermath.

"Was it that thing Jet did? Where he attacked Izzet?" Ruby asked. Her professor folded her arms.

"Ms Xinnerbell seemed fine when I spoke to her this morning, but she was not the one admitted to Vale General Hospital." Goodwitch replied. "That was Lilac Ayune. Jet is moving there as we speak with Professor Ozpin and his two teammates."

"Thanks professor." Ruby said, before walking back up the corridor, towards the exit of the building.

"Ms. Rose!" Goodwitch called. Ruby turned to see her with her arms crossed, having not turned to go the other way. "Jet mentioned that you might come after him."

Ruby halted in her tracks. Jet had left a message for her?

"He said not to worry, and that he'd be back by twelve-o-clock. He requested that no-one follow him, and that he and Ozpin would disclose information as they saw fit." Goodwitch continued. "That is all."

"Oh." Ruby said, turning away. Why had Jet not wanted her to come after him?

Clearly there was more to this than she first thought.


	9. Chapter 9 - Crash

Jet strode down the corridor of the hospital. Dressed in his usual black jacket and trousers, he dodged past a nurse in a white uniform. He was moving quickly, only paying attention to two things.

The piece of paper in his hands.

And the numbers of the rooms going past him.

The paper comprised of a table with two columns. On one, different conditions were listed underneath the words 'Lilac Ayane Test Results'. The second was a string of 'Negative's.

Except one difference, which Jet knew was going to be there. Where the word 'Hymen' was listed, the word 'Broken' was paired with it. He'd known before he'd received it.

While he'd been asleep, Lilac had scouted their rendezvous location for her night with him that took place as part of tonight's Team Night. She'd been cornered by someone, trapped by that same person, and raped by that same person.

His own teammate. All alone.

Helpless.

Jet clenched his fists around the paper as he continued to advance, rounding a corner. As soon as the testing was complete on the DNA of the sperm sample left in her body, he'd find the person responsible even before the law did.

They would suffer. No-one did something so horrible to a teammate of his own.

He reached the door he was looking for, and without waiting or knocking, shoulder barged the heavy iron door and crashed into the room. His unorthodox method of entry caused Lilac, who was in a hospital bed (roughly a queen size), Izzet and Nouvelle to all jump, while Ozpin merely turned around, his eyebrows raised.

"Vell?" Nouvelle asked immediately, a stern expression on her face as Jet caught his breath. "Ezz she vell?" She brushed her flaming red hair out of her face.

Jet paused and scanned up and down the chart before him. There were many terrifying listings, HIV, Syphilis, Genitalia Dysfunction/Damage. Thankfully, all of them were negative, though Jet felt his blood boil at the fact that there wasn't one that listed 'Psychological Harm'. Nouvelle was definitely hurting.

But no. All there was was the Hymen Broken abnormality (was it really an abnormality after what she'd been through?!).

"She's fine." Jet replied, and heard Izzet give an audible sigh of relief. "Only her virginity."

"Any information about the culprit?" Ozpin asked, his eyes not leaving Jet's.

"No." Jet replied. "But the doctor I spoke to assured me that we'd be the first to know. She said that she didn't envy the one who had done it now, what with one of the strongest hunters now 'chasing his tail'." He supplied the last with air quotes.

Jet checked his scroll. 11:43.

"Vhat should we do, Jet?" Nouvelle asked. Jet looked up in time to see Ozpin give him a look that plainly said 'your choice'. His choice, hm? He did remember what he'd said to Goodwitch.

"Ozpin and I will return back to Beacon." Jet replied. "You two remain here. Keep Lilac company." He then realised that, by the light of the artificial glow cast by the building, the pleading eyes of both Izzet and Nouvelle that made it clear they wanted his reassurance that it was the right course of action in the face of all this. "Ad mortem."

"Eet vill be done." Nouvelle replied, putting a fist to her chest, and bowing her head. Izzet did the same, and Ozpin's eyes widened slightly, something Jet might have missed had he not been well immersed in the art of discerning emotion from eye movement.

He knew why. His whole team respected him as both a leader and a friend. This had nothing to do with strength, however, as Jet knew that, if it was a three-on-one, his team would defeat him without any hassle. However, what garnered their respect was an aptitude for battlefield tactics that had saved them on more than one occasion.

Not only did his wings allow him to gain an elevated view of the field of battle (provided they weren't facing an enemy who could snipe him) but he was practically unparalleled in his craft. Ozpin himself had recognised his talent, and after demonstrating it in a supervised mission that should have killed them, his team had grown to appreciate his leadership.

Both the unconditional following of an order he gave and their salute were not enforced by his own hand, rather that the three women on his team had applied it themselves following their discovery of his ability at the head of an army. While Jet had protested numerous times, they had maintained it, and any more complaint from his own side would only make it harder to follow him, so Jet allowed for the simple reason that they would not discontinue.

"Well, we should be off." Ozpin declared, turning and exiting the room. Jet then turned and followed.

 _'_ _Stay safe.'_ he sent to his three teammates behind him.

* * *

Jet and Ozpin stepped out of the doors to the hospital, side by side.

Both student and headmaster walked away from the building that housed both teammate and fellow student.

"You have an intriguing level of authority for a team leader." Ozpin commented as they walked past several higher-tier shops selling dust and resources for weapons.

"I've made it clear several times that the salutes aren't necessary, but my team just has that much confidence in me." Jet replied. His focus wasn't on their surroundings, however. Jet lowered his voice. "Personally, I don't think I deserve it."

"Why not?" Ozpin asked. "I stand by what I, and Professor Port, said about you to General Ironwood when you were admitted here."

"That I rivalled him?" Jet responded. "Perhaps, but my abilities speak of someone that takes the power of their allies and wields it as his own."

"Are you referring to the move that your team refers to as Dark Ultimatum?" Ozpin queried. "The ability to drain an ally's aura, replenish your own and bolster your dust abilities temporarily?"

"That and others." Jet replied. "You and I both know that those mark me as far less than someone worthy to bear the title of Ironwood's rival."

"Perhaps, but do not forget that it was I and Port who bestowed you with said title." Ozpin said, as Jet took a quick glance around him, now beginning to recognise his surroundings. "And I do not believe you are less than that. You hold your teammates in much the same way as they do you, else you would not care as you do about taking their strength."

Jet couldn't find an argument to that. He and his teammates were practically like family in their trust of one another. Still, part of what kept him from feeling whole was the fact that they knew only half the truth about him.

If they knew the rest…

Jet shook his head, and followed his headmaster. Both he and Ozpin had agreed that that truth would not emerge unbidden, and that both would silence any that broke his own quiet on the matter.

* * *

Jet crash landed on his bed in his dorm room, and he soon felt it rise until it was hovering in the air once again. As much as it pained him to lay on Izzet's daily masterpiece, he couldn't help himself. He buried his head in his hands, feeling the muscles in his wings complain as they folded against his back.

How? How had this happened?

The answer was simple. Lilac had been ambushed by someone who'd either sabotaged her own combat potential, or they were much stronger in combat than she was. He found no bruise or blemish on his teammate's skin, so he guessed the former.

And both Nouvelle and Izzet had been shaken up by this, not to mention Lilac herself. All three were looking to him for support. So his move had been to order the three of them to stay together, while he started to search for the culprit.

Had that been the best move?

What if that same person came after another of his team… or Ruby, while he was just laying here?

No. Jet knew better than to question that. While Lilac may have been overcome by this person, now she and the others were in a secure building with both security cameras and themselves. One member of LIJN might be weak alone, but when two or more were present, they were brutal.

Jet knew that better than anyone. And that just left Ruby.

Jet laughed to himself. Anyone he knew would tell him that Ruby was able to take care of herself. But then, Lilac was as well. There again, Ruby had her own team, three teammates of her own that could protect her and themselves. He hadn't faced the rest of Ruby's team in combat, but she was something else.

He'd only bested her because he had something similar to her semblance. He'd taken her by surprise by demonstrating his proficiency with a scythe, and taking her on with said scythe. That was during the training fight.

When he'd fought her without holding back…

Jet sighed. That was a fight only one person had won in the past. When he unleashed his true power.

He was distracted from his musings from a tiny knocking on the door to the dorm room. Jet leaped down from his bunk, the pain in his wings instantly subsiding as the pressure was taken off of them. He strode to the door, his bare feel brushing through the black carpet of the dorm room.

He opened the door a crack, figuring it to be a teacher, possibly Ozpin following up, or maybe Goodwitch, come to check up on him. Jet was therefore surprised to open the door to find a familiar pair of silver eyes staring back at him from the small line of the door.

* * *

Izzet sat upon one of two chairs that had been pulled up next to Lilac's bed. Her eyes were on Lilac, who was currently wrapped up in her snow white duvet, even her shimmering curls hidden. Nouvelle was currently calling someone on her scroll, outside of the room.

Izzet slowly outstretched a hand to the shaken Lilac, and watched as she flinched. Since coming here, Lilac hadn't said a single word, both Jet and Nouvelle having supplied the only dialogue of their team between themselves, Ozpin, and Goodwitch.

 _'_ _Take my hand. It'll feel a bit better.'_ Izzet sent, using her own telepathy. The same telepathy that wasn't unique to her, as Jet could also use it. Thankfully, where words hadn't gotten through to her teammate, Lilac seemed to respond to her inner voice. She suddenly withdrew her hand and grasped her own, pulling it underneath the wrappings.

There was a knock on the door. Izzet glanced back in time to see a tall man in a white overcoat combined with a grey undercoat and red tie, black hair with grey streaks adorning his head. As he walked into the room, Izzet's hand not currently trapped by Lilac twitched towards her left sword, which was sheathed on her back.

"I'm here to check on the situation." he said, his firm tone and low voice not one Izzet recognised. He didn't seem to be a nurse.

Her hand clenched on the hilt of Temporal.

* * *

"Hi Jet." Ruby said, seeing the one emerald eye looking back from the crack in the door. "Can I come in?"

"Anytime." Jet responded, opening the door. As soon as Ruby saw her boyfriend's expression, her heart sank a little. He was anything but happy, his mouth a thin line, and his eyes had that harshness behind them that Ruby had seen back when they'd had their first conflict.

"I heard about the accident. Is everyone okay?" Ruby asked him anxiously. Jet grimaced in response as he led her inside, closing the door behind her.

"That was no accident." Jet replied, sitting at a desk to her left, and using his leg to grab another from another desk and push it towards her. Ruby sat down after putting Crescent Rose by the door. "Did Goodwitch tell you that?"

"Yes." Ruby said slowly. "Why?"

"Lilac was cornered and raped in Vale." Jet replied, bluntly. "It happened last night."

Cornered and raped? Ruby inadvertently let out a gasp as she processed this new piece of information. What happened? Was she hurt?

"Right now, she's in hospital." Jet continued, as Ruby looked down. "Izzet and Nouvelle are there, looking after her. I'm back here, and Ozpin is looking into things for me." Ruby heard a thump as his fist hit the desk. "I told him that no-one should know outside of my team. That means you'll have to keep quiet as well."

"I won't say anything." Ruby responded, looking up into Jet's eyes. "You know you can trust me."

Jet held her gaze for a moment, a searching look in his eyes.

"Yes, I do." Jet replied. He looked away for a moment, and Ruby sidled closer before putting her arms around his front, before embracing him from behind. Jet did not resist, instead leaning into her hug.

"What's your next move?" Ruby asked him.

"Right now?" Jet asked. "Simple really. Take this hit rolling, then get my team up and back into their learning. It won't be easy."

"Is it tough?" Ruby asked him, running a hand through his sleek, black hair. It had the feel of cold steel. "Being a leader, I mean. I'm a leader too but I've only really had Jaune answer that question, aaannnd he might not be the greatest comparison point."

"I hear you." Jet responded. "That guy has a heart of gold, but he's not the greatest combat-wise." He paused. "Honestly, it's not hard for me."

Ruby felt her stomach drop a bit. Really? It wasn't hard for him? Ruby tried her best to lead her team, and she always found it tough to decide for her team, and some of those decisions hadn't even been right. How did he do it? Was there a secret?

"What is hard though," Jet continued, as Ruby continued stroking his hair, "is living up to what Ozpin said about me. When he tested me himself, he called me Ironwood's upcoming rival in leadership, and that is no boast." He turned in his chair, forcing Ruby to both release him and stop stroking his spikes, and affixed her with a serious expression. "In combat, I'm also very dangerous at my best. But being at my best takes a huge effort. Can't you say the same?"

"Yeah." Ruby replied. It made sense. Jet knew his team just as well as she knew her own, probably. There again, she did have one other question to ask. "Does your team use moves?"

"Moves?" Jet queried, tilting his head. "We do have combination attacks, where two of us attack together. Is that what you mean?"

"Yeah. Could you tell me them?" Ruby asked, hopefully. "I just want to hear the names for them."

"Sure." Jet replied. "Well, we have many combinations, but you should probably know what we can all do." He paused, and Ruby waited for him to continue, wanting to know more. "I generally use dark-based attacks, Izzet uses time, Lilac uses electric-based attacks, and Nouvelle uses fire. My combinations are Chaos Silence with Izzet, Shadow Storm with Lilac and Balefire with Nouvelle."

"What do they do?" Ruby asked, interested. Jet gave her a smile, as if welcoming her curiosity.

"First, Chaos Silence."

In Ruby's mind's eye, she pictured Jet and Izzet back in that arena.

"Izzet uses her semblance to speed up our time, increasing our speed."

A blur appeared around them both, and Izzet drew her parallel blades, Jet following by deploying Midnight Rose.

"I then sacrifice a little of my aura to boost our power level, increasing the force of our strikes."

A dark aura, visible through the blurring, appeared around the pair's weapons.

"Then, we strike too fast and too hard for our target to react."

They flew forwards, and the mental picture faded.

"Next, Shadow Storm."

Jet and Lilac appeared. Lilac drew her two whips, which crackled with electricity.

"I perch on top of Lilac, and boost our power level."

Jet leaped up and landed on Lilac's shoulders. The dark aura surrounded them once more.

"She electrifies her whips and starts to spin, using magnetism to keep me in place."

Lilac spun on the spot, outstretching her glowing whips, making her and Jet look like a spinning top.

"Anything that gets hit by us gets paralyzed by Lilac then blown away by me."

The spinning top-like combination barrelled forwards.

"Finally, Balefire."

Jet and Nouvelle appeared. Nouvelle brandished Burning Meteor, the staff's flames burning fiercely.

"Nouvelle surrounds herself in flames."

Nouvelle bursts into flames, the crackling conflagration surging around her.

"I fly above her and she sends the flames upwards at me."

Jet took flight and hovered above Nouvelle, who gathered all the fire and sent it upwards at Jet in one big fireball.

"I then strike it and send fire in all directions, in an area-of-effect attack."

The scythe fell, and a storm of fire descended around the pair. Ruby's mental image faded as she returned to looking at Jet. She only had one statement to what she saw.

"That's awesome!" Ruby exclaimed, her volume causing Jet to flinch. "Did you come up with those yourself?"

"I did." Jet replied, smiling and tilting his head.

* * *

CLANG!

Izzet crouched and took a step back from this man, who'd just deflected her blade using a silver revolver. He was not crouched in a combat stance of his own, his eyes following Temporal and Tempest as Izzet angled them across her body in a defensive stance.

"Now, now." the man spoke again, lowering his weapon and pointing it downwards. "My name is General Ironwood. I just came to check on your teammate. Ask her a few questions."

Izzet tensed up. The name didn't ring a bell, and she still didn't recognise him. Maybe this was some big shot up at Beacon, Vale, or somewhere, but at the moment, she wasn't taking any chances. The man sighed.

"Would it help you if Ozpin or Glynda spoke with you? You clearly are a bit… agitated." Ironwood asked.

In response, Izzet raised Tempest, and mentally commanded the swords to display a grey light. They did so, and she shone it upwards.

Only Jet would convince her that this man was who he said he was.

* * *

"…and also Ice Flower, with me and Weiss." Ruby finished reciting. Jet listened to her intently, keeping a warm smile. She'd taken his hand in both of her own, the warmth gentle and loving as it poured from his body into her own.

Jet didn't respond immediately, but looked over her left shoulder, his gaze suddenly intense. Ruby whipped her head around, only to find… nothing. She quickly looked back at Jet in time to see him stand and remove his hand from her grasp.

"The hospital. Izzet's calling me!" he said, his voice raised. Ruby jumped to her feet, the motion pushing the chair away from her. How? Ruby couldn't hear any scroll going off. Seeing her confusion, Jet explained. "We all have a part of another semblance gifted to us. We can call our teammates to us by using a psychic signal. Izzet's using it to call me."

"Should I come?" Ruby asked as Jet perched himself on the window of his dorm room after opening it.

"I'll need the backup, if Izzet's signal means what I think it means." Jet replied, and Ruby grinned, taking Crescent Rose and moving up to the window.


	10. Chapter 10 - Bound to the Past

"I won't ask again." Ironwood said, his voice now taking a stern tone, one Izzet almost certainly didn't like. She lowered Temporal, wishing that Jet were here so that-

CRASH!

Izzet flinched as the door flew open, the boot mark on it indicating it had been kicked in, and she looked up in time to see both Jet… and Ruby?

Both stepped inside, scythes raised. Ruby immediately turned towards the man calling himself Ironwood, who had side-stepped the pair, and Jet strode towards her, bidding her to meet his eyes, which shone in the artificial light of the room.

"What happened? Is Lilac safe?" Jet asked.

"Ironwood?" Ruby asked. Jet took his eyes off Izzet and wheeled around to see the man Izzet had been defending Lilac from. Ruby immediately folded up her scythe.

"What are you doing here, General?" Jet asked. Izzet's heart felt like it had dropped a little.

Jet knew this man?

"Trying to ask our victim some questions about the incident she suffered." Ironwood replied sternly. Izzet noticed that Jet did not collapse his own scythe, and Ruby stepped back. "Your teammate has been preventing me from doing so. I would ask that she stand down."

 _'_ _I didn't know this man.'_ Izzet sent to Jet, hoping against hope that he wouldn't be angry with her. _'All I wanted was for Lilac to be safe.'_

"It was my instruction." Jet responded. He didn't look at Izzet, who felt a pang of guilt. Was he covering for her? "She was to defend Lilac against any she did not recognise or who didn't look like a doctor or nurse. And she is very protective of her teammates."

"And obstructive to those who wish to aid them." Ironwood commented scathingly. Now Izzet was roused, and angry. How was she supposed to know?! She took a step towards Ironwood, but Jet held Midnight Rose out to his side, blocking her.

"Enough, please." Jet responded. "I am here, and I can confirm for you," he turned and looked Izzet straight in the eye, "this one is trustworthy, both by Ozpin and myself. Now, Izzet, stay-veni."

Izzet recognised the command. Stay-veni meant 'stand down'. She lowered her blades and sheathed them. At the same time, Jet collapsed his scythe, and it faded into a purple aura which fed into Jet's own aura. Perhaps this man was trustworthy, as Jet seemed to regard him. However, she shot him a glare all the same.

"We will leave you to interview her." Jet said to Ironwood, putting an arm around Ruby's waist, intending to guide her out. "However, I must warn you, she is both shaken and scared. Her previous confidence in her strength was shattered. Remember this."

With that, he and Ruby vanished. Taking it as her cue, Izzet activated her time stop, and took one last glance at Lilac, who had cowered under the covers of her bed, before stepping smartly past the statue of Ironwood and leaving the room.

* * *

Weiss sat down on her pristine sheets and sighed heavily. Today had been a big day for her. And the sun was only just starting to crest the sky. Her forehead was in the palm of her left hand as she sat there, her hairs' normally tight-knit formation of strands coming free as shimmering slivers down her face.

That peaceful state was shattered when two shapes literally appeared out of nowhere in the center of her dorm room. With an understandable shriek of fright, Weiss leapt off her bed and into a fighting stance, Myrtenaster at the ready. It was only when she focussed on her two targets that she realised who they were.

Ruby was giggling nervously as she let off a plume of rose petals, seemingly from nowhere, and Jet, looking quite dizzy, spun once on the spot, before his legs gave out underneath him, letting his upper body hit the carpeted floor of their dorm, hard.

"Oopsie! Um… sorry Jet." Ruby said awkwardly, before wheeling around to see Weiss, still with her rapier pointed right at them. "Umm… Weiss? Why do you have your sword pointed at me?"

That was when the heiress exploded.

"RUBY YOU JUST GAVE ME THE FRIGHT OF MY LIFE WHAT WERE YOU DOING?!" Weiss yelled, very quickly. Jet covered his ears as he swayed, still dizzy. "HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!"

"Yeesh, calm down." Ruby said, nonchalantly, as if the heiress hadn't just yelled at her. "I'm fast, remember?"

"Ruby, she wouldn't have seen us coming." Jet said, standing up, though he still looked off balance. "I stopped time, remember?"

"Oh, right." Ruby replied. She looked over at Jet, noticing his state. "Are you alright, Jet?"

"Just fine." Jet replied. "I keep forgetting how fast you are, so when you picked me up-"

"Wait, Ruby picked YOU up?" Weiss asked him, shocked.

"…and carried me across Vale at the speed of sound, I can safely say I wasn't expecting it." Jet finished, then turned his gaze upon the heiress. "And yes, Ruby did pick me up. You'd be surprised at how strong she actually is, what with swinging a sword mounted on a pole all day."

"Hey! It's a scythe, thank you!" Ruby pouted, but before she could go on a tirade, Jet silenced her by placing a finger on her lips. She gave him a very indignant look, which evoked a chuckle from Jet, and a playful smile in return.

"You are too easy to tease, Ruby." Jet said, before releasing Ruby and taking a step back. "But enough prattle. I've an appointment with Goodwitch. I bid you, adieu." He have a mock bow aimed at Ruby, and then vanished.

"We'll see who's easy to tease." Ruby said, still irate, and shot out of the door, leaving a single rose petal, that slowly fluttered to the ground. Weiss, now slightly stunned, walked over, and picked it up.

"Well, that was a thing." Yang said, from behind Weiss.

Another shriek echoed through the dorm room, and this one could be heard from several rooms away.

* * *

Jet resumed the time flow once he was outside Ozpin's office. He knocked twice upon the traditional wooden door, and upon hearing Goodwitch's "Enter", opened it, and stepped inside of the familiar office. Before him laid that clock that gave a rather unappealing view of the stony grounds below, and the innermost workings of the clock that was on the outside of the building.

Behind the desk stood both Goodwitch, and… Ozpin? As Jet entered, he beckoned towards the seat before his desk. At his action, both teachers also sat. Jet linked the fingers of his hands as both teachers shared a glance, before turning their attention to him.

"How are you feeling?" Goodwtich asked, in a voice most different from her usual sharpened tone. This gave Jet pause. Normally, he'd never known Glynda to use anything but her usual. Still, he supposed he should play along.

"Fairly fine, considering I've got a teammate whose suffering right now, another that is so agitated she nearly decapitated our General, and no leads to the perpetrator of the first." Jet responded, mimicking Goodwitch's tone. This caused Ozpin to chuckle.

"Funny you mention that." Ozpin replied, after receiving a sideways glance from Goodwitch. "Normally, I would be concerned as to the reasoning of the attack on James. But, I suspect I know already, and your teammates'…" he paused, as if searching for the right word, "faith and trust in your command will ensure that this does not happen again?"

"Most definitely." Jet responded. "But you and I know each-other much better, therefore I suspect that my healer nearly decapitating Ironwood with a sword was not the main reason for my coming here."

"Quite right." Ozpin replied, with another chuckle. "Glynda, if you would?"

Goodwitch placed her scroll on the desk, which showed a hologram. Jet watched the video speed up until it reached a familiar scene. Jet watched from the third person as he slashed as Izzet using his scythe, her falling, and then the bars that filled below his name indicating that his aura had been refilled.

"Where did you learn how to do this?" Ozpin asked. "And moreover, why have you not demonstrated this ability before now?"

Jet bowed his head, taking his eyes off the terrible reminder of his abilities.

"For as long as I care to remember, I've been able to do that." Jet replied. "During your trial of me, neither of us had allies with aura to drain, therefore I was unable to demonstrate that ability. And only now have I performed it within Beacon's walls. It only works when an ally is willing to sacrifice their aura temporarily."

"Yet your aura's strength was measured as impenetrable by the aura indicators. How was that achieved?" Goodwitch queried.

"When Dark Ultimatum is used, I enter a period of instability through which my physical and aura strength is greatly increased." Jet explained. "The duration of time I am able to sustain this for scales with the drained ally's remaining aura. After this, I suffer a massive reduction in those strengths, which has a duration that also scales with the ally's aura."

"I now understand what you meant when you said to me that you thought yourself unsuited for my personal opinion of you being James' rival in tactical combat." Ozpin commented. "You were referring to this ability. The ability to absorb aura."

"Correct." Jet responded. "And yet something tells me to embrace it. A feeling that what I can do is what true power really is, that what I am is only the beginning."

The door opened behind Jet as he spoke. He turned his head quickly.

"Ah. Perfect timing." Ozpin spoke from behind Jet.

* * *

Ruby wandered around outside, near one of many statues inside Beacon's walls, thinking. How best to get Jet. How best to get him back.

She looked up in time to see storm clouds starting to gather, converging around the fabled Beacon Tower.

An unusual sense of foreboding gripped her heart, and not for the first time today, she wondered where Jet was. What he was doing.

* * *

Jet felt his body being slammed into the ground of the arena for the umpteenth time, and an all too familiar arm being slammed into his back, which prevented him from rectifying the situation of being slammed into the ground in the first place. Had he mentioned 'slammed' a bit too much there? Good!

"Please tell me that you don't need me to beat him up any more." Qrow's voice sounded out from above Jet, and he knew that he was the owner of the arm currently pinning him, the same one that had been pinning him for the past ten or so attempts.

It turned out that underneath the tower of Beacon a hidden practise arena laid, clearly meant for Ozpin's personal use. It was dark here, the metal floor of the simulated arena cold the first time Jet had found his cheek upon it. Now it was warm, from the use it had just gone through.

He'd been sparring with Ruby's uncle for the past half an hour, and Jet was slowly getting more and more frustrated. Ozpin and Goodwitch were watching, the session presumably to further awaken his powers. All of those semblances he'd had, if there was any hidden within.

And every time, EVERY AGONISING TIME!

He'd get up, face Qrow again, and every time he'd end up back here.

How could he break the cycle?

That was what they wanted, right?

Jet thought hard, as Qrow helped him up and he walked to the other side of the arena again, his aura still dangerously low. He could feel a number of sore spots from the battering, and had heard Goodwitch protest more than once as to the necessity of all of this.

Why was it still going on?

Jet tried to maintain his twelfth ready stance, but felt his legs collapse from underneath him, and he fell to the ground, finally defeated. He had no more energy. Another run would kill him.

 _'_ _Jet?'_ Flux called out from the back of his mind as he heard Qrow call out "C'mon, he's done! Oz, there's no need for any more!"

 _'_ _They're hurting me really badly, Flux.'_ Jet replied. _'I can't go on.'_

"Once more, Qrow." Ozpin responded from the stands. "We must be certain."

 _'_ _Should I assume our alternate form?'_ Flux asked Jet. _'Can I save you?'_

 _'_ _Yes. Please.'_ Jet mentally begged. At this point, he didn't care, as long as he ended this.

They wanted his true power, well, that is what they would get.

"Sorry, kid." he heard above him. Looking up, he saw Qrow's face above his own, and he could see that sword. The one responsible for all this pain. The one… the one…

No sooner had Jet found it hard to martial his thoughts that he realised strength, pure strength was flowing through his veins, Flux's mind slowly replacing his own in the cockpit of his own body. Pain was making him spasm, especially in his back, but he knew that the pain meant Flux was working.

"Not… yet." Jet growled, his mouth moving on its own, Flux having assumed direct control. He sent out a red shockwave that blasted Qrow backwards, the size and power of the blast stunning him as he was sent flying backwards.

Jet roared and convulsed as he felt his tank top being ripped off, his wings growing to an enormous size, and that wasn't all that appeared. Needle-like feathers burst from the sides of his arms, forming blade-like protrusions. Silvery claws caused Jet to drop Midnight Rose as they exploded out of his fingertips. Jet was howling in both pain and pleasure as Flux completed the transformation into his alternate form, a Grimm and human hybrid.

"Get comfortable." Flux spoke through Jet as she took flight, soaring until she was at the height of the arena. "Because now you've made me mad!"

Jet could feel Flux's anger at all of them as she tensed up. His vision was turning red, and he could feel fangs jutting where his human canines had once been. Power. So much power!

 _'_ _Finally.'_ A third voice, this one much deeper, much darker than Flux's voice, spoke out in Jet's head. A momentary surge of panic shot through Jet as he recognised the foreign voice, but that moment passed as it was replaced by more elation. _'You awaken.'_

Jet plummeted, straight towards Qrow, fist aimed straight at the man's head, at speeds close to sound. He barely had time to react.

But barely meant everything. He only just managed to evade Jet's strike, which shook the ground. Rather than counter-attack, as he had done every time Jet had attempted to attack, he kept his distance as Jet crouched into a fighting stance.

'Now, let us show these humans what power you truly wield.' the third voice said, and Jet felt his whole body suddenly glow white hot with heat. He was… getting stronger! Even stronger!

More pain!

More power!

He barely saw Ozpin leap forward from the stands before his consciousness deserted him.

 **To be continued...**


	11. A Message To You All

Heya all.

Not sure if I'm reaching one person, ten people, even a hundred with this message.

I just hope that you've been doing well.

I've been gone for a while.

Life's not been easy, but it's not been boring either. Fun, even.

If you've been waiting for me to update, then just know that I'm not out yet. But with all this time comes a bit of good news. I've been gaining experience in writing, and with it, my works have been improving. I haven't been resting on my laurels this whole time.

But that's not what you've come to hear about.

I'm reworking The Chronicle's Continuation.

As in starting afresh.

With the way The Jet Chronicles ended, I feel like I can do more with this sequel. Characters, plots, twists, I can improve it all now.

This series and The Night Walkers will return.

Just give me a bit more time.

But that shouldn't be an issue, right?

After all, if you're still here, still waiting for me, then you've been waiting for a while already.

At least I can reassure you that I definitely haven't left.

Not yet.

See you guys soon!

CCC


	12. Rework Trailer

**(A/N)**

 **Heya Guys! Progress on the rework is going strong. With uni on the corner, it probably will take me a bit longer just to make up the distance. But I suppose that was part and parcel of doing this now.**

 **I've prepped a small except in one of my trailer-style chapters for you all, to get the hype train rolling.**

 **Or you could just be disappointed.**

 **One way or another, here it is!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **CCC**

* * *

 _"I'm scared about what's going to happen now."_

* * *

Ruby stood in the center of the arena, stretching her arms and legs, readying Crescent Rose.

The audience was going wild.

Cheering, clapping, even singing in some cases.

It was the final match. The one she'd been waiting for.

* * *

 _"I'm not just a normal girl now."_

* * *

A man clad in black stepped before her. The one she knew would be coming.

His smart jacket and trousers were pitch black, highlighted only by a red trim along the sleeves and collar.

An emblem of a white infinity sign was on his right shoulder, upon a shield badge with a golden border.

Emerald eyes locked onto hers as a black ponytail danced in the writhing air.

Silver blades flashed onto the man's pale-skinned arms.

Fists clenched.

* * *

 _"Everyone's going to treat me like I'm special. I don't want that."_

* * *

"Teach them a lesson, Ruby!" she heard Weiss' shout.

"Make us proud, Ruby!" Yang boomed out.

"BREAK HIS LEGS!" Nora's voice drowned out the whole crowd momentarily.

A grin appeared on her opponent's face.

"You've made it this far. Now, prove yourself!"

* * *

In the dark, Ruby looked upon her goal.

Ruby took a step.

Then another.

Then another.

The weight of the world felt like it was on her shoulders.

* * *

 _"You know, it's normal to be special."_

* * *

Her legs felt like weighed down lead.

Arms drooped, hair astray and tangled.

Last step, then the really hard part.

Ruby looked upwards. It was right there.

* * *

 _"People look at us and express surprise, happiness or even anger."_

* * *

All she had to do was leap for it.

She tensed her muscles for the final time, preparing to spring.

Just one last burst!

* * *

Ruby sat in class, trying her best to look up at Port as he droned on and on.

She was so sleepy.

* * *

 _"But at the end of the day, anyone put under a spotlight will be the same."_

* * *

She looked around the classroom, desperate for some kind of distraction.

That was when she saw it.

Those black uniforms.

It was impossible to miss!

* * *

Duck to avoid the first blade.

Ruby parried the second.

Sidestepped the third swipe.

Shot to spin and counter.

Step forward and swing to follow up.

* * *

 _"I'm glad I found you."_

* * *

She knew it in that moment.

She was in love.

There was no other way to say it.

She was in love.


End file.
